


Unstable Energy

by Sleepless_in_Starbucks



Category: Sanders Sides (Web Series)
Genre: Alternate Timelines, Au!Au, But then one thing lead to another so yeah, Don't let the chapters scare you, I just release it in pieces to taunt you, I the anxiety riddled mess I am have already finished it, M/M, Major Character Injury, No judgment here, Prosthetics, Starts out not very losleep heavy, Sympathetic Deceit Sanders, Techincally there's anxceit, You can call it platonic or romantic or whatever, You can take my losleep out of my cold dead hands though, death fake-out, time travel attempt, tw: eating mentions, tw: food mentions
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-05-14
Updated: 2019-05-20
Packaged: 2020-03-05 06:38:17
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 11
Words: 21,862
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18823144
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Sleepless_in_Starbucks/pseuds/Sleepless_in_Starbucks
Summary: Thomas Logan Sanders had dedicated a decade and a half of his life to the study and actualization of time travel, and he was perfectly happy to keep his research in that line of inquiry.So when the fateful day finally came around and he found himself not in a different time so much as a different world, staring down a man with an eerily similar face, Thomas was happy to quite literally turn away and run.Too bad the easy way never works out...





	1. Prologue

**Author's Note:**

> Specific warnings for this section: None that I can think of!  
> For any chapter, if you want me to add a warning, just make a comment requesting it and it will be done!

Thomas had finally done it.

It had taken him fifteen years. Fifteen long, hard years of work since that fateful day in freshman year of high school that he had decided he would do the quote-unquote impossible:

Build a time machine.

He had plowed through dull, easy high school into college where he finally picked a major and out of that to too-often skipping eating to get a little more funding for his work.

A fact which greatly annoyed his "partner" Remy, who he used the term partner extremely loosely. He had bumped into him in college and grown fascinated with how the major-less young adult seemed to never sleep and survive solely on coffee.

Somewhere along the line of him following Remy everywhere to track how well he performed tasks and got through his homework (Thomas never figured it out; Remy's 4.0 stumped him) they became friends.

Thomas has still to see him sleep, but he now strongly believed that is because Remy plans his naps to insure Thomas never sees him sleep. That or Remy is a mutant whose mutation was the ability to forgo sleep when fueled with caffeine. Thomas still wasn't one hundred percent sure one way or the other.

Either way, Remy had been amused by the dork following him around. An amusement that lapsed into friendship when Remy kept randomly passing lunches and snacks off to Thomas, who regularly forgot to eat and they could no longer avoid interacting with each other in some way.

The only reason Thomas called him a "partner" was because of Remy's surprising knowledge of scientific paradoxes, a topic that came up too often in time travel.

But at the end of the day it was Thomas who had done it. Thomas who had written and rewritten (and re-rewritten) the equations, Thomas who had drawn up the blueprints, Thomas who had slaved over wielding it it all together.

Thomas who had run the tests, starting with objects before using rats and bunnies to track that they really were traveling through time, Thomas who had calculated the chemical imbalances and shifts in them that showed they  _ had _ moved through time.

And it was Thomas Logan Sanders who was about to make the trip himself, and he was sure nothing could go wrong.

 


	2. Familar Face in an Unfamilar Place

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Things around here look oddly familiar...

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Warnings: Mentions of going unconscious, some swearing.  
> For any chapter, if you want me to add a warning, just make a comment requesting it and it will be done!

"Ow."

Thomas rubbed the back of his head.  _ Note to self: Time travel is not a gentle experience. _

"You doing okay, hun?" Remy's voice crackled in Thomas's ear (the coms worked, of course; Thomas had sent in his robotic microphone tester Teddy Turtle before making the trip).

"Yeah, just got a bit of whiplash."

Thomas got himself out of his seat, pulling off the fifteen different straps and safety measures he had put in with the exact purpose to avoid injuring himself.  _ Second note to self: Fix safety measures _

He moved to the front of the mostly cramped space, briefly checking the blinking machines that took up most of his room, finding them all working to his satisfaction. Except…

"Time manager's on the fritz." Thomas told Remy. "Instead of displaying the date or even the number of years moved, it only shows an error message."

"Guess you'll have to check you actually ended up in the 2000s the old-fashioned way." Remy responded. "Y'know, with your eyes and geeky mind."

Thomas rolled his eyes. "Remy, Remy, Remy, I'd expect you to know Thomas Sanders always has a back-up plan." He teased while he scrambled to actually get his back-up plan: G.H.A.T.T.

"Don't tell me you're getting that stupid named thing."

"The General Health And Time Tracker is very important, Rem, and the fact it has what you consider a stupid name is not my problem."

Though he couldn't see him, Thomas was ninety-nine percent sure that Remy had rolled his eyes.

Chuckling, Thomas finally found the G.H.A.T.T. It was a small metal square, with a screen inset to show off the arrangement of pixels currently displaying nothing. Powering it on, a list of numbers tracking the basic condition of the time machine displayed.

Though at first happy to find it working, Thomas frowned when once again the time manager line showed 'ERR0R' instead of the time period.

Thomas sighed and headed towards the door once more, still keeping hold of the G.H.A.T.T. He'd find a use for it somewhere.

Peeking out, Thomas found whatever time period he had landed in, it was modern enough for his pressed slacks, shirt, and tie to fit in. Assured he wouldn't be gawked at simply for his appearance, Thomas stepped out onto the street.

He took a second to lock up the machine, which appeared to the casual observer like a weird van, bent and expanded awkwardly to hold in all the machines and energy the machine required to run. Sadly, learning how to make something bigger on the inside was a mystery he was still figuring out.

Double checking that the ordinary looking (but in reality extremely secure) lock was working, Thomas set off down the street, determined to figure out where his machine had taken him.

Looking around at the modern-styled cars running pass the traffic lights, the various shops with the more recent clothing trends and toys in the windows, and the people on the more advanced versions of smartphones, however, Thomas found himself wondering if he really had jumped back in time.

Something in the back of his mind felt like something was off- he didn't realize they sold cars in  _ that _ shape, and he was quite sure he had never heard of the band the billboard was excitedly displaying was coming to the city, but Thomas wasn't exactly caught up on pop culture so what did he know?

He glanced at G.H.A.T.T. which, in lieu of actual dates and times, had started to scan through chemical signatures. Thomas was confused by this as well, since he was pretty sure G.H.A.T.T. had no reason to be doing that. The machine still had a few kinks, Thomas realized, he should have worked on those more before he left…

Lost in his thoughts, Thomas didn't notice the equally distracted man coming directly at him until they collided into each other. Stumbled forward, Thomas sacrificed saving his balance to keep a hold on G.H.A.T.T. and was fully prepared to hit the pavement when someone caught his arm.

"Oof, I'm so sorry!! I wasn't paying attention- there was a really cute dog across the street and, gosh, well, I just had to look at that happy puppo! Are you okay?"

Thomas was already waving his hand, muttering, "No problem," before he finally got completely on his feet and met the stranger's eyes.

Or should he say, his eyes.

Because standing in front of Thomas seemed to be his identical clone. At least, near identical. The stranger-clone had a smattering of freckles across his face, along with bright blue eyes versus Thomas's brown ones. The more noticeable difference was his curly light brown hair that was nothing like Thomas's dark, short and straight hair.

Thomas blinked, frozen in place, his mind trying to make sense of what he was seeing. Thomas had no siblings, and all his cousins took much more after other members of the family. Where the heck had the stranger-clone come from????

Stranger-clone, to his own credit, seemed completely oblivious to Thomas's mental meltdown. "My name's Tomathy Sanders!"

"That's a stupid name." Thomas said immediately, his mental filter currently stuck in the part of his brain undergoing a massive restart. The stranger-clone seemed surprisingly unbothered.

"You caught me!" he said cheerily. "It's actually Thomas. I always thought Tomathy was a much more fun name than Thomas, though, but most people realize I'm joking about it right off the bat."

Thomas reacted to that, jerking his head before re-meeting the stranger-clone's eyes. "Thomas Sanders?"

The stranger-clone nodded happily. "Yep! You know, you and I look really similar. We even both wear glasses!" He said, tapping his wiry circular glasses that looked nothing like Thomas's think rectangular ones.

Before Thomas could respond, G.H.A.T.T. beeped and started spewing data ( _ Yet another note to self: Program G.H.A.T.T. to not just spill info in front of stranger-clones _ ).

"Preliminary chemical analysis completed, Mr. Sanders." G.H.A.T.T. continued on to list the varying levels of different chemicals in the atmosphere, chemical levels even Thomas's half-dead brain recognized as matching the data attached to the test subjects when they had returned from their trips.

Except... now that they were there, there were a few more chemicals that could be measured. And as G.H.A.T.T. listed out their levels, the reality of the situation hit Thomas and it hit him  _ hard. _

He hadn't time traveled. No, he was in the exact same year, month, day and possibly second that he had been in when he booted up the time machine. The difference now was not of  _ time _ but of  _ space. _

Thomas hadn't jumped through time. He had jumped timelines.

And if that wasn't a shock in and of itself, the stranger-clone's reaction that followed was even more.

"Oh, nifty device you got there! Picked up on my name real quick! Odd thing for it to spew chemical signatures matching alternate universes but still very cool!"

'My stranger clone understands advanced scientific principles.' Thomas thought lazily, the more important part of his brains back to being mush. 'Forget stranger clone, he was be me in this timeline. Interesting.'

The stranger-clone- no Thomas couldn't keep using that term- his... timeline-clone tilted his head.

"You good there, buddy? You seem to be short-circuiting."

Internally Thomas agreed with his timeline-clone, as he then proceeded to grab his arms and pull him into the nearest alley. The timeline-clone, for his credit, seemed oddly okay with being tugged out of the traffic of the sidewalk.

"You seem to be freaking out a little bit." Timeline-clone said gently, shaking off Thomas's arms once they were completely in the alleyway. "Why don't you take a few deep breaths..."

Thomas ignored the timeline-clone's words as he hurriedly pressed his com- an action that was unnecessary as it automatically communicated all words on both sides but an action that comforted him, made him feel like he was at least doing something- and started yelling, "Remy? Remy, are you there?? Remy we have a serious prob-"

"Breathe, Thomas, breathe!!" Remy responded, acting annoyed despite the worry that laced his voice at hearing Thomas call out so wildly. "What's up?"

"Remy you won't  _ believe _ this- I didn't time travel, I jumped  _ timelines _ I don't even know how I did it but I did and I just ran into an alternate me he's standing next to me right now he's so similar yet different  _ what do I do- _ "

"Um, what?!" Timeline clone said at the same time Remy rushed to calm Thomas down again.

"Thomas, I understand your nerd mind is buzzing with the implications of all of this, but, uh, please tell me you didn't just yell all that with your alternate standing right next to you."

Thomas glanced guiltily over at the extremely confused looking timeline-clone. "I may have done that."

Remy sighed deeply. "He doesn't believe you, does he?"

Thomas glanced at timeline-clone again, who was now staring in awe at G.H.A.T.T. and muttering, "It wasn't a joke..."

"I think he thinks it's real."

A deeper sigh. "Thomas, I'm not saying I know everything about timeline-jumping etiquette but something tells me you can't just leave him now."

Thomas squinted at his timeline-clone. "I'm going to try."

"Wait, Thomas no-"

But it was too late. Instinct brain was working instead of logic brain and Thomas was sprinting out of the alleyway, hearing his timeline-clone calling out behind him as he went.

"Thomas you fxcking nerd are you running????"

"YeS"

"You're a stressed mess and you're running from your alternate who thinks you came from an alternate universe???"

"YES"

"I swear... okay Thomas you better hurry and get your butt back in your timeline so we can have a  _ serious _ talk about how to handle social situations as a time and/or timeline jumper."

"I didn't... realize... there was... a... rulebook... for these... things..." Thomas panted out just as he got to the lumpy van parked in its own little alleyway.

"There is now bxtch and I'm the author."

Thomas managed to get out a laugh as he fought open the lock to the van, pulling it open and hopping in without a second thought.

He quickly flicked the switches he needed to before settling down in his seat, pulling on the various safety straps, pulling them even tighter, knowing that it was probably still a pointless attempt to stop his head from getting bounced around. At least the headrest was comfy.

Clicking the final belt, he pushed the small, hidden blue button that started the leap algorithms. "Coming at you, Rem."

"If you don't get yourself stuck in another timeline first."

"Let's hope not." Thomas responded as the machine around him began to rattle and buzz.

Just as the odd calm that settled right before the machine jumped and briefly rendered the passenger unconscious fell upon Thomas, he could have sworn he noticed a flash of bright blue matching the shirt his timeline-clone had been wearing out of the corner of his eye. Then a ear-piercing screech tore out across the machine as it jumped through space and Thomas was asleep and carefree.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thomas L. Sanders has excellent reactions. Truly the collected genius he sees himself as.  
> My Tumblr: https://sleepless-in-starbucks.tumblr.com/


	3. Pastel Dresses and Digital Friends

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Looks like just 'Thomas' isn't going to do it anymore.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Warnings: Someone collapsing, mentions of food/eating, bad puns, swearing  
> For any chapter, if you want me to add a warning, just make a comment requesting it and it will be done!

When Thomas's head smacked against the headrest again and he opened his eyes, everything (luckily) seemed in place. Even after getting out of his seat, he found the time manager was reading of the proper time and date.

"Thank goodness for that." Thomas mumbled under his breath, going to check the G.H.A.T.T. as well. Just as he was pulling the small piece of metal out of its charging spot on the back of the time manager, the back doors to the van were pulled open. Thomas glanced over, unsurprised to find Remy leaning on one of the doors messing with his earring cuff.

"Heya, ya stupid nerd." Remy greeted oh-so-affectionately as he hopped inside the van. "I hear you broke your time machine."

"I didn't  _ break _ it, per say." Thomas protested. "I just... sent it somewhere else."

"If you didn't want it to go where it did, you broke it."

"Tomato, solanum lycopersicum."

Remy rolled his eyes. "You and your big words." He gestured at G.H.A.T.T. "Your stupid-named thing working?"

Thomas nodded. " _ G.H.A.T.T. _ is working just fine now that it's back in this timeline."

"Speaking of..." Remy frowned. "How the Hell does one jump timelines when you're trying to go back in time?! I feel like that shouldn't just be a 'oops I forgot to carry a one' sort of error, and you checked this baby over, like, five million times."

Thomas shrugged helplessly before turning around to look at the machines as if that would answer the question. "I honestly have no clue. There must have been something fundamentally wrong with my logic."

Remy placed a hand over his heart. "Your logic, wrong?? I thought the great Thomas Sanders couldn't be wrong!!"

"You can just shut up, you know."

"Gurl, you just blabbermouthed about your timeline jumping to your alternate. You have no ground on which to get me to shut up."

Thomas sighed. "Will I ever hear the end of that?"

"No."

"The end of that!" Remy and Thomas jerked and turned as another voice called out from the other side of the van.

From behind one of the computers a light haired head popped up, timeline-clone smiling brightly from where he was resting his chin on the supercomputer. "Now you've heard it!"

For a moment, no one responded. Then Remy pointed one finger at timeline-clone, saying, " _ That's _ your alternate?"

Thomas massaged the bridge of his nose. "Yes."

"I like him."

Thomas looked at Remy in confusion while timeline-clone beamed, scrabbling around the computer while struggling to keep his blue-pink pastel dress from getting caught on any of the circuits. "And I like you too!!" Timeline-clone returned just as he stumbled in front of Thomas and Remy.

Thomas looked back towards timeline-clone. "Did you follow me into my van?"

Timeline-clone had the decency to look slightly ashamed as he answered, "You just seemed so freaked out, and I mean you just said you were from an alternate timeline, I just couldn't help but check to make sure you were all good! And then the van was making weird noises and before I could do anything there was a really loud screech and, welp, I was out!"

Thomas frowned. "You're lucky you didn't break anything, or hurt yourself considering how much you must have bounced around."

"Yeahhhhhh, you should probably fix that." Timeline-clone said with a grimace. "I don't think timeline machines should be that bumpy."

"It wasn't meant to be a timeline machine." Thomas said, annoyed to have his timeline-clone telling him what he should be doing with  _ his _ messed-up machine. The fact that he had the exact same concerns about the machine was unimportant.

"Well, then, it's still pretty cool you invented one!"

Thomas sighed. "How are you so happy about all of this?"

Timeline-clone somehow smiled even bigger. "Well I got to meet an alternate version of me, and that's super cool! And I got to meet your friend and he's super cool! And now I know timeline travel is possible and that's also really cool!" Before Thomas could interrupt him, timeline-clone pointed at G.H.A.T.T., which was still in Thomas's grasp. "Ohhhh, can I take a look at that!?"

"Uh," Thomas was about to say no before Remy took G.H.A.T.T. from his hand and passed it to timeline-clone.

"Go wild, honey." Remy said with what Thomas deemed an infuriating wink directed at himself.

"And while you do that..." Remy turned around and headed out of the van, "I'mma make breakfast. I think you two could do with some good food."

"Remy, it's two in the afternoon."

"Breakfast is timeless, Thomas."

Still twiddling with G.H.A.T.T., timeline-clone carefully followed Remy out of the van, leaving Thomas alone to throw his hands in the air and rant to himself about timeline-clones being nothing like him and half-partners who needed to not hand over important scientific equipment to random timeline-clones.

After ensuring the computers were still working Thomas left the van as well, moving through the garage and into the kitchen. Timeline-clone was sitting at the table while Remy stood in front of the oven, humming while he flipped pancakes.

Thomas sat down in his seat, tilting his head as he continued to studied his timeline-clone, who was now sticking out his tongue while he messed with G.H.A.T.T. Thomas was starting to get seriously worried about what exactly timeline-clone was doing to it.

"So what do you do around here, other-me?" Timeline-clone said suddenly, slightly startling Thomas. "It doesn't look like you run a bakery."

"Is that what you do in your timeline?"

Timeline-clone nodded his head. "I mean, I went through a little bit of college with the idea to build a time machine, but then I realized it wasn't really my style."

"And so your next course of action was to open a bakery?"

"Yep!" Timeline-clone said like it was the most reasonable course of action. "I still dabble a bit in sciences, but I mostly stopped doing that stuff. Oh, but I did get into programming!"

"Programming...?" Thomas was surprised. He had gotten into a lot of different subjects in school, but outside of the absolute basics he needed to program his supercomputers (the basics were surprisingly not that basic) he had never cared much for it.

"Yeah. I mostly got into it because of Tamagotchis, though." Timeline-clone said casually. "They were soooo cute I wanted to make my own!

"So then I started putting them in my tv and computer and fridge- that one required me putting sensors on the sides so it tracked when I put food in to feed the dog that lived there but it was worth it- and it just sort of became my favorite little hobby! Bringing all those cute little animals into the world is just so much fun I started doing it to other friends' appliances as well and they really seem to like it so that always makes me happy."

"That's sweet of you, sugar." Remy got in while he did what Thomas deemed a useless double flip of one of the pancakes.

"Thanks!" Timeline-clone said energetically before turning back to Thomas. "Like I said, I do this a lot so it's kinda a habit by now, but I hope you don't mind! I didn't really think an animal would suit as well as a person so I made that instead!"

"What are you talking about?" Thomas asked, lost in the conversation. Instead of responding, timeline-clone passed G.H.A.T.T. back to Thomas.

Except there were no longer numbers on G.H.A.T.T.'s screen.

Instead, timeline-clone had somehow turned the colour settings back on and used them to arrange the image of a man on the screen. The digital man seemed to be wearing a brown sweater vest, pink tie, and matching hair, along with a smile as big as his maker's.

"His name's Emile!!" Timeline-clone said excitedly. "Which stands for Epically Magnificent and Incredibly Lovable Emile!"

"That's not how acronyms works." Thomas responded wearily.

"I think it is, Thomas." Remy called back from the stove.

"Talk to him!" Timeline-clone gestured at the newly named Emile.

"I'm not going to talk to him."

"Nice to meet you, not-going-to-talk-to-him!" Thomas turned his attention back towards Emile. "I'm Emile!"

Thomas blinked and took a moment to process everything that was happening. His timeline-clone the baker had just completely changed the functionality of G.H.A.T.T. by turning on and remodeling functions of it to work in a way to make it into a human Tamagotchi.

A human Tamagotchi that made dad jokes.

"He still does everything your machine did before I gave it life." Timeline-clone explained, happily unaware of Thomas's mental break. "He's just more fun now!"

"I love it." Remy commented. "I mean I haven't seen it yet but he sure sounds fun."

"He's said one thing!"

"No I haven't!" Emile chipped in. "I said 'Nice to meet you, not-going-to-talk-to-him!' and 'I'm Emile!' I have yet to say 'one thing.' Except now I have!"

Thomas decided timeline-clone had not created Emile but simply inserted some of his own life essence into G.H.A.T.T. to create a digital version of himself.

"Um, yes." Thomas said uncertainly. "I'm just going to turn you off for now, to, eh, conserve energy."

"Alright, friendo!" Emile seemed very happy about being briefly killed off. "As they say in newly-settled America, ana!" He mimed the goodbye wave even as the screen turned off.

Thomas turned the device upside down and slid it slightly away from him, as if that would change the fact the next time he turned it on he'd be met with a face and not a jumble of numbers.

"Do you like him?" Timeline-clone asked after Thomas turned Emile off, leaning closer to Thomas and somehow looking extremely adorable despite the fact they shared nearly identical faces.

Thomas couldn't bear to tell him the truth that he was confused, annoyed, and concerned by Emile's existence, and instead replied with a small smile, "He's great."

Patton clapped happily and Thomas decided the half-lie was worth it.

Remy twirled over to them then, bearing with him two plates. He set down Thomas's first- biscuit and mushroom omelet- before timeline-clone's, which was a much more intricate set up of three pancakes stacked on top of each other, all in the shape of bunny rabbits, with blueberry juice dragged across parts to make it look like patches of blue littering the bunnies' fur.

"Aww!" Timeline-clone gushed immediately, picking up the plate to study the pancake bunnies closer. "I love them!!"

Remy winked at timeline-clone as he headed back towards the counter. "Anything for you, sugar."

Thomas rolled his eyes as he ate a bit of his omelet. "Rem, I think you're playing favorites."

Rem turned back from the counter, now holding a jar of Crofter's, which he shook in Thomas's general direction. "Oh I am, am I?"

"Yes, you are." Thomas responded. "And I'm the favorite. Gimme." He reached one hand out, feeling slightly like a five-year-old demanding a toy and not caring.

Remy laughed but handed over the jam nonetheless.

"Uh, you want some biscuit with that jam?" Timeline-clone joked as Thomas then proceeded to open the Crofter's and dump a healthy amount of it on top of his lone biscuit.

Thomas picked up the biscuit, took a bite, and, deciding he could still taste too much biscuit, dumped a bit more on. "Nope."

"Thomas has a problem." Remy said as he joined them at the table, his own stack of pancakes slightly drowned in syrup in front of him. "He's addicted to Crofter's. I've tried to get him to go to Jam Addicts Anonymous  but he refuses to admit he's hooked."

"I can stop whenever I want. And I don't want to."

Remy rolled his eyes. "You really must ignore him, uh... y'know I just realized I don't really know what to call you. I can't exactly call you Thomas."

"You could call me Tomathy!"

"We are  _ not _ calling you Tomathy." Thomas opposed instantly, still munching on his jam lump.

"I guess it's time for nicknames, then." Remy said. "You can be Thomas," he pointed at timeline-clone before pointing at Thomas, "and you can be Nerd!"

"I refuse."

"I thought you were proud to be a nerd."

"He came second; he should be the one to get the nickname."

"Accept the nickname, Nerd. It is your life now."

"Remy-"

"Yes, Nerd?"

Nerd waved his jam pile angrily at his friend. "Don't make me stick you in an alternate timeline."

"Honey, I'd just find that version of you and come back with  _ two _ me's. Are you sure you want to do that?"

Thomas waved his hand. "Guys, we can just use my middle name if it'd be easier!"

Nerd raised an eyebrow. "It isn't Logan, is it?"

Thomas shook his head. "It's Patton!"

"Well, then, that's settled!" Remy declared. "From this point onwards, Thomas shall be Patton and Nerd shall be Logan!"

Logan briefly considering arguing the point, but then decided he didn't want to too greatly anger the supplier of packages on which to bear Crofter's (though if times got bad, he would make the sacrifice and eat it all by itself).

"Fine." He agreed. "I'll be Logan."

"Great." Remy said. He took another bite of his pancakes before stopping to point his fork at Patton. "You know you're supposed to eat the pancakes, right, sweet?"

Patton pouted at his pancakes. "They're too cute. I can't eat them."

Before Logan could explain the multiple flaws in the logic that that which is cute can't be eaten, there was a crash from the living room. With a quick glance at each other, the three launched out of their seats in the direction of the sound.

Coming to a slightly jumbled stop in the opening of the living room, the group found…

"Oh my god it's a goth you." Remy blurted out immediately.

Though Logan couldn't help but roll his eyes at Remy's less-than-eloquent way of putting it, he had, in a way, hit the nail on its head. Struggling to keep himself upright using the armchair nearest to him, the newest timeline-clone was wearing a patched up black-and-purple sweatshirt over baggy sweats. His striking grey eyes matched the dark bags under his eyes Logan couldn't at a glance tell if they were fake or put on.

With a grunt, the goth timeline-clone pointed at the space in between Logan and Patton and forced out, "You're a fxcking idiot," before promptly collapsing.

Remy was the first to get to him, not looking at either Logan or Patton as he ordered, "Someone grab me Emile!"

"Y'know it's not  _ really _ called Emile since the function you want if part of G.H.A.T.T.'s programming-"

Remy took this time to face Logan, seemingly mustering every inch of sass in his body to glare at Logan. "Get me the goddamn doctor Tamagotchi!"

Logan was ready to go on correcting Remy- doctor Tamagotchi, really Rem, was that going to save the day?- but Patton had already grabbed Emile himself and was handing it over to Remy.

Remy pressed the device to the goth timeline-clone's wrist, letting it take in the pulse and heat of him while doing all the other things Logan had carefully programmed him to do back when Emile was still G.H.A.T.T.

After a moment, Emile started speaking. "Primary analysis complete. Subject is unconscious but stable."

"Good." Remy said, poking the goth timeline-clone's cheek. "I don't want to have to deal with a dead alternate today. Any clue why he's unconscious?"

"Appears to be caused as a side-effect of the reaction of a certain cocktail of drugs being hit with a strong but- to humans- harmless dose of radiation." Emile's icon leaned his head on his hand, looking thoughtful. "I may be wrong, but this reaction appears to be a form of singular timeline displacement, one which would turn the body into the timeline machine instead of requiring a separate one."

"Another timeline jumper." Logan simplified. "Great. Super. I was  _ really _ looking to have another variable in this equation."

"Oh, be nice, Lo." Remy said, the new name having only fueled his inability to just call people by one name. He handed Emile back to Patton before scooping Virgil up and heading for the hallway.

"Where are you going with him?" Logan called after Remy. Remy stopped for a second to turn around and answer.

"Your room."

"What?! No!"

"Gurl, you're the one who got us into this mess, 'cause I don't believe for  _ one second _ this goth mess would be in our house if you hadn't stolen Patton from his timeline." Remy responded, continuing his walk. "Besides, you sleep in your room once every blue moon anyways. Honestly the couch is more your bed at this point."

Logan sighed and plopped down on what was, apparently, his real bed (he was strictly ignoring the fact that Remy was 100% right, that he had only been in his room the last three months four times to get various tools).

Patton plopped down next to him. "Sooooooo, why do you think he showed up?"

"He radiated himself while he was also tripping on fifteen different chemicals." Logan responded, still slightly thrown off his balance by the second timeline-clone and hence completely lacking his mental filter.

"It was actually only six different chemicals, and three byproduct chemicals that were created as secondary reactions." Emile corrected. "But your general impression that he was tripping is correct."

"Thanks, Emile."

Remy came back just then, glancing back down the hall as he did. "Okay, I'm pretty sure he'll be up in a few hours."

Patton nodded. "What are we going to do until then?"

Logan turned his head in the direction of the garage. "We should probably work on the timeline machine. Figure out why it's a timeline machine and not a time machine. I mean, now that we've got two clones who need to get back to their timelines, we really need to make sure we can replicate the jumping trick from earlier."

"Fair enough." Remy agreed before waving his hand dismissively at Patton and Logan. "You two have fun. I've got to go do my duty as the breadwinner of the house."

"You're the only one who works. You're the breadwinner by default."

"And as such I have the right to claim, use, and abuse the title."

Remy unhooked the motorcycle keys from the rack and headed out the door; the cycle having been parked in front of the house to make room in the garage for the van. As the door closed behind him, Logan got back up and headed towards the garage.

"What does Remy do?" Patton asked, joining Logan.

"Depends. What's the day, time of sun rising, and position of Venus today?" Logan joked.

Patton looked confused. Logan chuckled. "Remy is not a man who can be bound by a certain job. Never picked a major and just sort of let that roll into his day-to-day life as well. I think he's currently working as a chef at some snobbish joint uptown."

"Huh." Patton said, stopping halfway through the kitchen as Logan got to the garage door. "Cool."

Logan himself stopped at the door of the garage, waiting for Patton to catch back up. When Patton continued to stand in place, Logan gestured at the door. "You coming?"

Patton looked mildly surprised. "Do you want me to? I know this is your timeline and your project and everything, so I just kinda thought I'd clean up the kitchen and check on the other us..."

Logan paused for a second, not even realizing he had just assumed Patton would come in with him. Logan normally preferred to work on his projects alone, with the exception of Remy, since other people normally just screwed things up. And Patton was already offering to stay out.

...but then again, this was a serious problem that could require more than one mind, and who better to help than himself? Even if it was a baker version of himself.

After a minute of consideration, Logan shrugged. "You can if you want, but you're welcome to come and help if you'd prefer." He said nonchalantly before descending the few steps into the garage.

Patton glanced at the dishes on the table, left behind when Virgil had appeared and Remy had realized he had his job. Hesitating for just a moment, Patton turned from the dishes and followed Logan into the garage.

 


	4. We Need to Talk about the Goth

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> No one said time(line) travel was an exact science.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Warnings: Mentions of incredible amounts of possible deaths, minor mental breakdown, swearing  
> For any chapter, if you want me to add a warning, just make a comment requesting it and it will be done!

Logan, for his part, handed Patton a set of the blueprints without a second thought,  _ clearly _ not already expecting him to come and help him out over doing the dishes.

And so for the next few hours, Patton quickly got himself very familiar with the rules of time law and physics, trying to troubleshoot the computers while Logan grumbled and cursed as he went over his five-page long equations once more, taking fifteen minutes just to clarify that a van would be able to hold the force of energy properly for time travel (and not, perhaps, redirecting it outwards and pushing the travelers in a different direction than the one intended).

Patton was in the middle of explaining to Logan that, no, a^2 + b^2 = c^2 did not belong in an equation about how many units of energy it would take to power the van for just one jump when they heard the door to the garage creak on its hinges.

Glancing over, Logan and Patton found the goth timeline-clone leaning on the doorway, face screwed up in a scowl and all the purple hair he didn't have pulled back in a ponytail messed up.

"You're up!" Patton said happily. The goth timeline-clone grunted in response.

"I hope you're ready to explain yourself." Logan followed, crossing his arms. "You can't just teleport into someone else's timeline, accuse someone of being an idiot, and then faint with no explanation."

"At least I didn't fxck anything up!" The goth timeline-clone snarled defensively. "I'm going to take it this is your timeline?"

Logan nodded.

"Great. You're an idiot."

Logan pulled back slightly in disdain. "Excuse me?"

"You know what you heard."

"And why, pray tell, am I an idiot?"

"Because you went sticking your nose into matters you didn't even research properly, and now everything's screwed up!" The goth timeline-clone explained angrily, adding in a near-whisper, "Again."

Patton cut in hastily before Logan could respond with what he considered the very sensible response of, "What the Hell are you talking about?!"

"Listen, guys, maybe we should take a breath and sit down while we discuss this like the at least semi-decent alternates we are." He said, moving to stand between them.

The goth timeline-clone huffed. "Do you have coffee?"

Instead of answering, Logan waved at the various hunks of metal and sprawling pieces of paper behind him that indicated many, many,  _ many _ late nights and early mornings.

The goth timeline-clone nodded slowly. "Fine."

"Great!" Patton said, moving to pass by the goth timeline-clone and start brewing the coffee. "Oh, and can we get your middle name? Unless you aren't Thomas Sanders, even though you look an awful lot like a Thomas Sanders."

"My middle name's Virgil."

"Virgil it is, then!" Patton said easily, slipping into the kitchen as he said so. He beckoned  the other two to follow after him, which they did after Virgil sneered at Logan. Logan was left to sigh, not one hundred percent sure why he hated him but at this point not surprised.

They ended up sitting in uncomfortable silence while Patton brewed the coffee, Virgil refusing to speak without the bitter bean juice and Logan having nothing to say until Virgil was taking questions.

Even after the crushed watery destroyer-of-sleep was served around, Virgil took his time breathing in the aroma and sipping it slowly, as though he was afraid to burn his tongue. Logan was no fool, however, and had lived too long with Remy to not realize Virgil had probably chugged his fair share of boiling coffee and was just stalling.

Finally, shortly before Logan was considering going back to puzzling out of equations because he seemed to have plenty of time on his hands waiting, Virgil cleared his throat.

"Before I tell you anything, I need to know where this timeline diverged from mine." Virgil said surprisingly matter-of-factly for a man who had been violently insulting Logan only one minute ago.

"Okay?" Logan said slowly. "How exactly do you want us to do that?"

"When did you start waiting to build your time machine?"

"High school."

"Did you focus on building it or understanding it?"

"Understanding it, duh. Why the heck would I start by building it?”

Virgil nodded. "That was where you stopped being the smart version of Thomas Sanders and started being one of the dumber ones."

Logan through his hands in the air. "How, exactly, does going into the advanced science of  _ time travel _ make me the dumber alternate!?"

"Because when you got caught up in writing down equations, you didn't take the time to figure out how the machine would react to making the jump."

Logan felt vaguely like screaming.  _ Of course _ he had worked out how the machine would take the jump! What sort of utter fool did Virgil take him for??

Virgil seemed to sense his inner turmoil, sipping more of his coffee before continuing, "How did you concentrate the unstable energy flow?"

Logan frowned. Unstable energy was the byproduct of the machine making jumps; after providing the fuel for jumps, the useless parts of the energy units were imbued with all the explosive and dangerous byproducts.

"It stores itself in secondary fuel tanks to be disposed of responsibly." Logan finally responded. When not only Virgil but also Patton cringed at that remark, he glanced between the two of them both annoyed and worried. "What is it?"

"Kiddo, well, you have to have known that any material that imbued with... well, with  _ everything _ that the machine leaves after a run through won't just stay put in a fuel tank." Patton said gently.

"I've taken advanced chemistry, guys, I'm not an idiot." Logan said, still worried they considered this to be such a turning point. "The unstable energy is dangerous, yes, but not so power fueled it would do something like phase through the tank!"

"Not when you were just time jumping." Virgil said casually.

Logan furrowed his brow for a second before it donned on him. "No..."

Virgil seemed at least a little sorrowful when he nodded. "Yes. Time jumping does not take nearly as much power as timeline jumping does. You packed extra fuel, luckily, and weren't stranded, but... more fuel used, more byproducts, the more unstable the energy became."

Logan pressed his face into his hands. "I am an idiot."

"No you're not!" Patton assured him while Virgil drank more coffee. "You just accidentally did something bigger than expected!"

"And doomed us all in the process."

"Virgil, if you don't something nice to say, don't say anything."

"I wouldn't be here if I had something nice to say."

Logan removed his face from his hands to rest his chin on them. "It's okay, Patton. He clearly knows more than us on timeline travel anyways. How have I doomed us all?"

"When I started working on my time machine, I start by building it." Virgil explained. "A little backwards, sure, but as I started on each part, that was when I worked out the science to go with it. That way I didn't make up my equations and then miss a critical juncture in the built machine."

"Okayyy." Logan said slowly. "Two different ways at the same problem. That's cool."

"Except my way was better." Virgil said pointedly. "When I built the fuel system, I realized how dangerous the unstable energy was and how easy it would be for it to get out of the fuel system and into the world if I wasn't careful with how I dealt with it."

Logan rolled his eyes. "I got to that too. I just built it for time and not timelines, right? Why does this need to be explained via storytime-"

"Because I built in an energy redistributor." Virgil cut him off. "A system with the exact function of disposing of the unstable energy immediately and safely by breaking it all up into miniscule chunks and shooting it far, far across the time and/or timeline landed in."

"So, because I didn't build that, my unstable energy distributed itself in bigger dangerous chunks?" Logan guessed.

"Almost." Virgil answered. "Except instead of going in chunks, it went out in one large burst. A burst that attached itself to a singular object. And, hence forth, has basically turned that object into a bomb."

Logan was not a swearer. Cussing was for angry, less dignified people who didn't have the words to express their annoyance.

When, upon hearing Virgil's words, he said, "Fxck," quite loudly, he felt as if he finally understood the point of using such simple terms.

"How big?" Logan asked tiredly. "How big of a bomb?"

Virgil swirled the rest of his coffee dregs, looking at them as if they held deep secrets. "Cosmic."

"No shxt, Sherlock." Logan responded moodily, ignoring Patton's slight gasp next to him. "Death count? Planets it would reach? Something other than 'cosmic'?!"

"It would reach every timeline in the near vicinity of the one the bomb is currently in." Virgil said. "Given how many timelines there are, how closely packed together they are, well... even I couldn't calculate the amount of timelines that would be completely obliterated."

"Could you make an estimate?"

Virgil glared at Logan. "Not that it matters, but if numbers are  _ that _ important to you, imagine every single sand on the earth and every star we can see in the sky, and multiple that number by one hundred."

Logan leaned back in his chair. "Great. I've doomed an uncountable number of lives trying to friggin go back in time."

"You have." Virgil agreed. "Now are you ready to stop feeling sorry about yourself and help me fix your mistakes?"

Logan raised an eyebrow. "How do we stop a mass of unstable energy from exploding?"

For the first time in the conversation, Virgil looked away. "I... don't know."

Logan was about ready to cuss again when Patton cut in first, trying to meet Virgil's eyes as he said, "But you know someone who does, don't you?"

Virgil whipped his head back to meet Patton's eyes, looking surprisingly furious. "We're not bringing anyone else into this mess!"

"Virgil, if they know how to stop this bomb from going off, we  _ have _ to involve them!" Logan argued. "Or at least just pay them a visit!"

"They've suffered enough for stupid mistakes!" Virgil yelled back, getting up with such force as to knock his chair over before he stormed away into the living room.

Logan remained seated, fuming at the knocked-over chair while Patton slowly got up. "I..." He paused. "I'm going to bring him more coffee." He said finally, grabbing the pot before heading towards the living room.

Logan, laying his head on the table, took the empty room as another chance to swear.

"Fxck." He yelled into the wooden surface, not hearing the noise of the front door open as he did so.

"Logan Sanders, is that a  _ swear _ I heard?"


	5. Mental Breakdowns are the Best Wingmen

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Remy wants to joke, Logan wants to cry, and this is officially where I become Losleep trash.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Warnings: Breakdown, crying, swearing, going unconscious, mentions of possible deaths, self-deprivation  
> For any chapter, if you want me to add a warning, just make a comment requesting it and it will be done!

Logan tilted his head on the surface to face Remy, who was grinning like the Cheshire cat.

Logan sighed and turned his head back into the table while Remy happily started talking about how he was going to turn that into a quote and frame it on a wall for all to see; the famous Logan Sanders, brilliant scientist, has  _ sworn _ like a  _ common person. _

Somewhere in the middle of his spiel about how he was going to get a golden frame for the quote, Remy slowly stopped talking, getting concerned that Logan wasn't protesting or at least sticking his tongue out in response.

"Yo, Lo, you good?" Remy asked, sliding down into Patton's vacated seat, choosing to ignore the fallen one for the moment.

Logan mumbled his response into the table.

"Honey I can't hear you."

Logan flopped his head back on its side to face Remy, who had propped his sunglasses on his head to actually make eye contact with Logan. A subconscious part of Logan noted that meant Remy was really worried, but the conscious part of him was still reeling over the lives he had doomed.

"I'm an idiot. A fool. A goddamn ignoramus."

Remy's frown deepened. "Oh, sweetheart, I find that doubtful." He said, slowly moving his hand to mess with Logan's hair. He did it often enough as a joke, or just to mock his perfect hair-do, but the normality of the action still calmed Logan down.

A little.

"I didn't do it right, Rem." Logan responded bitterly. "I spent fifteen years dedicated  _ only _ to this and I still managed to mess it up. And now people might  _ die _ because of that."

"People might die...?" Remy said uncertainly, Logan having briefly forgotten he hadn't been there the last few minutes.

"The unstable energy... I didn't contain it. Now it's a bomb and it's going to destroy timelines- so many timelines..."

Logan felt his eyes sting. He started blinking, trying to stop the tears (Logan Sanders was a renowned scientist; he didn't  _ cry _ ) but it didn't matter. His  _ entire _ life he had dedicated to this, to this work. He had checked so many times, wasted so many years, tried his hardest to make sure everything  _ worked _ .

And now, to realize it was all a waste, that this timeline version of Thomas Sanders just wasn't smart enough to do it  _ right _ was absolutely devastating.

"Oh, sugar." Remy said, seeing Logan's tears and guessing what he was thinking. He moved to wipe them away while he continued, "I know you didn't mean to-"

"What does it matter if I didn't mean to?!" Logan yelled bitterly. "I did! And if I can't figure out how to save them, if we can't get Virgil to tell us what he knows, they die!"

"Logan." Remy said forcefully, successfully shutting Logan up. "Hun, luv, sweetie, you really are too hard on yourself."

"But-"

"Shhh." Remy cut him off. "Lo, you spent fifteen years of your life dedicated to a science no one else believed in. Mistakes were bound to happen. Now, you can't just leave it at that, of course. You'll have to fix it like I know you can fix it, because you are the great Thomas Logan Sanders. Builder of ugly vans, occasional swearer, and all around genius. You'll get out there, you'll find that answer, and you'll save all those lives you think you've doomed. But what's important right now is that you realize that making a mistake, even one like this, does not just invalidate all your hard work and study."

"Rem, I-"

"I said shh. Now is not the time for talk."

"You just talked for like a minute straight." Logan managed to joke.

"That's my annoying nerd." Remy said with a smile. "Now come on. Lemma hug you."

"Remyyyyyyy"

"You cried, I have the right to hug you."

Logan pretended to protest a little bit more, but in the end, didn't resist that much as Remy pulled him closer and moved his head so it was leaning on his shoulder.

Of course, if you asked him later, Logan had just  _ hated _ feeling happy and secure in Remy's protective and loving grasp, and he had  _ totally _ not hummed happily into his friend's neck while he went back on about mocking his swear words like nothing at all was amiss.

"I should have guessed other Thomas Sanders were gay messes, too." Logan jerked his head off of Remy's shoulder to see Virgil smirking in the doorway, Patton standing behind him and making a low, "awwwwwwwww" sound.

Suddenly blushing, Logan jerked out of Remy's arms and also out of his chair in response. "Fxck!"

"Lo, if you keep this up I'm going to have to get you a swear jar."

"Like you don't have a mouth dirtier than mud."

"Gayyyyyyyy." Virgil whispered, getting another glare from Logan. He shrugged in response to the glare. "I'm just sayin'."

Logan looked away from Patton and Virgil, pointedly ignoring their gazes and Remy's laughter as he got out of his chair and started cleaning up the now hours-old breakfast.

"So, Virgil, eh?" Remy said to Virgil. "Matches your goth vibe."

"Mmhmph. Nice piercings." Virgil returned.

Logan got off the ground and rubbed at his face while Remy and Virgil exchanged compliments. Patton had wandered over to him, a huge grin still stretched on his face.

"Please don't mention it." Logan said immediately, sure that his face was still the colour of a solanum lycopersicum.

"I won't." Patton said in a tone of voice Logan took to mean he wouldn't mention it, but he sure would hint at it. A lot. Probably with puns. "I just wanted to tell you Virgil agreed to go to the person who knows about time bombs."

"Great." Logan said, choosing to ignore the pun in 'time bombs.' "Who are they?"

"Don't know yet." Patton admitted. "I only just convinced him that, as much as we don't want to hurt them, there are too many lives on the line to try and figure it out ourselves."

Logan nodded. "Fair enough." He then turned his attention back to Virgil and Remy, who were now chatting excitedly about tattoos. "Virgil?"

Virgil glanced away from Remy, looking annoyed to be torn from his conversation. "Yeah?"

"The sooner we get to taking care of the unstable energy the better."

Virgil looked away for a second, clearly still on edge about taking them to his friend. "I guess." He conceded quietly. "I'll need a bit of time to reconfigure your van so another burst of unstable energy doesn't end up in the atmosphere for us to deal with, but then we'll be good to go."

Logan nodded. "Of course. Do you want assistance, or...?"

"You're the science guy, right?"

"Sure."

Virgil pointed at Patton. "You said you did computers?"

"Yep!"

"Wicked. We got a dream team. Come on; I'll show you want to do so it doesn't get fxcked up again."

"I'll brew some more coffee!" Remy added cheerily as Virgil lead the group of Thomas Sanders's into the garage.

With the three of them working with a clear goal and a seemingly endless supply of coffee (and at one point, shaped mini sandwiches and fruits) coming in, they got the van fixed up and the equations  straightened gayed out as they needed to be in two hours.

Two and a half if you counted the amount of times they got thrown off task by Patton's puns or Virgil's teasing.

"And this baby is ready to go!" Virgil finally said, sounding the happiest he had since he landed in the living room. He had grease smudged on his face and his white shirt (which had been under the hoodie he had discarded before they started) was absolutely ruined, but slapping the edge of the bumper and leaning on the hood, Virgil looked perfectly in his zone.

"We're good over here too!" Patton chimed in happily, Emile propped up on the machine next to him.

"I'm good as well." Logan added, tapping the nice and neat lines of work he had gotten done. 

"Lo's  _ always _ good!" Remy called from the kitchen.

"I let you hug me  _ one time _ ."

"Gays, gays; settle down." Virgil said with a smirk, pulling his hoodie back on, clearly unconcerned if he got grease on it.

Logan rolled his eyes. "If we really are good to go, can we go? There are universes at sake and, more importantly, I need to get away from my quote-unquote friend."

"Lo, I am  _ hurt _ and  _ wounded _ beyond words!"

"Yet you keep talking!"

Patton leaned over to Virgil. "I don't think they realize they're dating."

"I think Remy knows." Virgil responded slyly. "But I think Logan's still catching up."

Logan stuck his tongue out at the kitchen doorway before turning back towards Patton and Virgil, who quickly pretended to not be talking with each other. "Is the timeline set?"

Virgil nodded. "Ready when you are,  _ Lo _ ." He added mockingly.

"I will leave you stranded in space time."

"You can try." Virgil responded before getting into the van.

Patton smiled and followed Virgil in.

Logan rolled his eyes. "We're leaving, Rem. Try not to burn the house down while I'm gone."

"Gurl, I am not the mad scientist of this duo."

"Uh huh." Logan clambered into the van, not hearing the footsteps coming from the kitchen as he did so. Just as he turned around to close the van doors, he found Remy in his face.

"Kiss for good luck." Remy said, pressing his lips to Logan's before the nerd could process and react to what was said. By the time he did, his punk friend (...boyfriend?) was running back towards the kitchen with another wink thrown over his shoulder.

Logan went on to short-circuit at the edge of the van while Patton squealed happily and Virgil chuckled, the goth clone closing the doors while Patton happily pulled Logan away from the edge.

Logan, in fact, was still in his mental daze as Patton sat him down in the chair and Virgil started up the machine. He didn't even have the chance to warn them the machine would bounce them pretty hard if they weren't careful before it was screaming again and everything faded out.


	6. The Man, the Myth, the Machine

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Time to meet a man from Virgil's past.   
> Will anyone be surprised if I say communication problems?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Warnings: Bad communication, losing conscious, angsty backstory, self-sacrifice, mentions of nursing back to health, injuries but no description, replacement limbs with descriptions  
> For any chapter, if you want me to add a warning, just make a comment requesting it and it will be done!

When Logan woke back up, he was pleasantly surprised to find his head wasn't slammed across his headrest. In fact, he was actually secure in his seat, despite none of the straps having been put on. Patton and Virgil were also good, pulling themselves off of the ground.

"I... don't have a concussion?" Logan said uncertainly as he got up as well.

Virgil rolled his eyes. "What sort of timeline machine mechanic would I be if I couldn't fix your sucky suspension?"

"Fair enough." Logan responded, taking a second to glance at the new-and-improved time manager. It was helpfully reading "not in original timeline."

"So, where's your friend?" Patton asked cheerily.

"He's not my friend..." Virgil said slowly, smile falling as he looked away from them. "Screwed that up a while ago."

Logan frowned. "Okay, if you say so. We, uh, still have to find him."

Virgil extracted a crumpled piece of paper from his pocket. An address was written on it, along with hastily scrawled directions. "If I'm right, we should be in the right spot for these to work. Otherwise you'll just have to use your common sense and find the address."

"You're not coming with us?" Patton asked.

Virgil shook his head, still looking at the machines and not them. "I don't think he'd want to see me."

"Why not?" Logan prompted, feeling bad for prying but also having the creeping suspicion it may be important.

Virgil hesitated before evasively answering, "The reason he knows as much about unstable energy bombs as he does... it's my fault. We haven't talked since the, eh, the  _ incident _ but I know he hates me for it. It's better if you two talk to him alone."

"But-" Patton started, but Logan quietly placed a hand on his shoulder, signaling they shouldn't push him.

"Alright, Virgil." Logan said. "Anything else we should know?"

"...the incident changed him. Physically and mentally. Just... just keep that in mind while you talk with him."

Logan nodded. "Okay." He moved passed Virgil, Patton trailing behind him. "We'll see you again soon."

Virgil didn't respond as Logan and Patton left the van and started making their way down the street.

"I'm worried about this, Logan." Patton said after a few minutes. "I don't know what happened, but Virgil seems to feel really bad about it."

"I know. I'm a little worried, too." Logan responded.

"Do you think the expert, whoever they are, really hates Virgil?"

"I'm not sure. I wouldn't think so, but... anything's possible."

Patton made concerned noises. "But Virgil seems nice! A little coarse, sure, but he means well. I can't imagine him doing something purposely to hurt anyone. Especially an old friend."

"Me neither, Patton."

The conversation lapsed into silence until they reached the address. It had lead them to an old looking house on the edge of the town. The windows were dusty, the roof missing shingles, and the porch missing planks.

"Are you sure this is the address?" Patton asked. Logan handed him the paper, which matched the grimy, dull numbers on the side of the house.

As they approached the door, Logan took in more aspects of the broken down house; the car in the driveway that clearly hadn't moved in months, the weeds across the entire yard, the way the steps he and Patton took up to the door creaked like they would snap.

With another worried glance at an equally concerned Patton, Logan knocked on the door, not trusting the doorbell to work.

For a minute, there was no response. Before Logan could knock again, however, he heard creaking on the other side of the door, followed by the squealing of hinges as the door opened.

"Who is it? I would prefer you stay." The person on the other side of the door said in a voice that suggested he actually wouldn't prefer them staying. Before either Logan or Patton could answer, the door was half open and they found another Thomas Sanders's staring at them.

They regarded each other for a second before the newest timeline-clone said, "Oh," turned around, and walked back into the house. Logan and Patton waited a second longer before taking the still-open door as an invitation to come inside.

The house was as sad and broken down on the inside as it was on the outside- old wallpaper was peeling at the edges, dead flowers were still sat out in otherwise empty vases, and everything was scratched up.

Logan and Patton glanced around the hallway as they continued onwards, eventually coming into what they deemed the living room. It, too, was in a bad state of disarray, but it wasn't the center of attention.

Instead, it was timeline-clone number 3 who was the most disturbing display. He had flopped himself into an armchair that had a line of tears ripped through it in multiple parts. His baggy clothes continued the idea of disuse of everything surrounding him. Showing through the rips in it were spindly metal wires and poles, forming the basic shape of an arm and leg on his left side. The silvery contraptions trailed up his neck as well, but a phantom-of-the-opera style mask covered exactly what had become his face.

"So. You're more Thomas Sanders's?" Broken timeline-clone asked with a sigh.

Logan nodded after a moment. "Y-yes. We're going by middle names right now, so, um, you can call me Logan, and this is Patton."

Broken timeline-clone nodded. "Huh."

"Um. Could we maybe get your middle name?"

Broken timeline clone shrugged. "Yep. You cannot use my initial. It's not D."

Patton shifted awkwardly. "So, um, what  _ should _ we call you?"

Broken timeline-clone rolled his eye. "I'm able to speak in truths. Totally speaking in awkward sentences just to pull your leg. Don't call me Dee."

"Oh. I see..." Logan said, catching on. "Is this related to the unstable energy incident?"

Dee raised his eyebrow. "So that's not why you're here. You haven't screwed something up and are now not coming looking for help."

"I made a mistake." Logan responded. "I'm here trying to fix it. We've heard you might know how to do that."

"Did Virgil send you?" Dee scoffed when Logan and Patton nodded. "I shouldn't have known. It wouldn't be like him to keep an eye on all of time, just to make sure it never happened again..."

"Dee, we hate to push, but," Patton said gently after a minute of silence went by, "there are lives on the line. A lot of them. We need to know how you stopped it the first time."

"I did."

"What?" Logan said after the second that passed for him to realize he meant 'I didn't.' "What do you mean you didn't?"

"I mean, that I did." Dee said. "I know I'm clearest speaker, but I don't expect you to at least keep up with that, Logan."

Logan sighed. "Virgil told us you would know what to do."

"I don't."

Logan rubbed the bridge of his nose. "You either did stop it or you didn't stop it, Dee."

"I did stop it from exploding. I didn't stop it from destroying the timelines."

Logan raised his eyebrows. Patton put a hand to his mouth, confused but understanding that something went wrong.

Dee sighed. "By the time me and Virgil realized what was happening, it wasn't too late to stop it. The unstable energy hadn't latched onto a common bowler hat and we hadn't taken too long to find it. There was something that could be done to stop it from exploding."

"How did you stop it from destroying the timelines?" Logan asked, already dreading the answer.

Dee looked down at his metal side. "I didn't control the blast. Didn't find a way to lessen the impact. And it didn't cost me anything."

Patton gasped and looked away from Dee. Logan couldn't help but meet his eyes when Dee looked back up.

"Is that the only way?" Logan asked. He was already trying to figure out how to reproduce and possibly improve the metallic devices. Of course, he hadn't seen the facial one yet…

"Yes." Dee responded, having already caught the glint in Logan's eyes. "If Virgil didn't come to you directly after you created the bomb, you don't have a chance to stop this."

"How?"

"It's simple." Dee responded. "You'll be able to do it without me easily."

"Easily solved, then." Logan replied. "You can come with us. Assuming I'm right when I say you don't actually hate Virgil."

This got Dee's attention. He looked almost ready to bite someone. "Who told you I hated Virgil???”

“Virgil.” Patton admitted sadly.

Dee swore. "I'm surprised. He sticks around, constantly visits me for years... Of course he didn't think I hated him." He looked down. "I shouldn't have reached out."

"Would you even have been able to?" Logan asked, the condition of the room and house a glaring reminder of everything that had not happened in years.

"Maybe." Dee replied, glancing around the room as well. "When Virgil left, I didn't think he hated  _ me _ . I didn't think he thought I had been... I don't know... overly self-sacrificing. Or if he could bear to see me like this."

"You don't look that bad." Patton said, trying to sound cheery and failing. "I mean... plenty of people have artificial limbs. It isn't that weird."

"Oh, yeah?" Dee said, bitterness bleeding in his words. "How many people have this?!"

With that dramatic response, Dee pulled off the mask.

Logan would have looked away if he wasn't so scientifically fascinated. The side of his head the mask had covered was covered with a sheet of metal, bulging in the middle to, most likely, hold in his brain. The rest of his face was just... pipes swirled around to form the basic design to hold the mask on and nothing else.

"It's... it's all gone." Logan said quietly. He wasn't even sure how Dee had managed to rebuild himself. "You did this... all by yourself...?"

Dee frowned, and Logan almost looked away from how odd it was to see the functioning side of his face move while the other didn't move in any way. "Yes. Virgil didn't stay a few weeks at first, and he didn't keep me alive until I was able to support myself."

"Virgil said you guys haven't talked since... the incident."

"We have." Dee responded instantly. "My voice box wasn't damaged and I didn't have to build a new one after he left."

"So he nursed you back to heath... and then left before even knowing if you wanted him to stay?" Patton cut in from where he had started sitting on the edge of the couch. He sounded pained. "And he's lived all this time thinking you hate him…” Patton screwed his face into one of determination and got off the couch. "I'm staging an intervention!"

"Patton, I don't know what you're doing, but is this really the time-" Logan was interrupted as Patton marched up to Dee.

Patton picked up the fallen mask and fitted it back on Dee's face while the broken timeline-clone just sort of gaped at him. Having put the mask back on, Patton then proceeded to grab Dee's real arm and pull him towards the front door.

Logan glanced around the dreary, messed up living room, checking that there was nothing mechanical Dee might need to function before chasing after the other two Thomas Sanders's.

Dee seemed too stunned by being in the town for the first time in- what, months? Years?- to do much more than let Patton pull him along. Logan briefly considered how they looked to the townspeople- three triplets running down the lane, one in a pastel dress pulling along one in baggy clothes and robot parts while the third was trying to sprint in work pants.

More importantly, he wondered how it all looked to Virgil, who had been twiddling his thumbs in the front of the van when Patton yanked the doors opened and shoved Dee in before he and Logan climbed in themselves.

"Dee!" Virgil said, jerking out of the chair he had been sitting in and nearly knocking over a computer. "Wha-why are you-"

"Patton totally didn't kidnap me."

"It was an intervention!!" Patton reasoned while Logan closed the van doors with awkward smiles to the passerbyers who were glancing inside. "You two have terrible communication skills!! Someone had to force you to talk to each other!!"

"There's nothing to talk about." Virgil responded, turning away from Dee. "Stupid things happened and left him with all consequences."

"Ye-es." Patton agreed. "So?"

"So I left so he wouldn't have to deal with the fxcker who got away clean from the mess they made!" Virgil responded as if the subject of his sentence wasn't standing all of two feet away from him.

"It was just your mess, Virge." Dee said. "We weren't both involved in everything that lead up to it."

"Even if we were both involved... Dee, it should have been me. It was my machine."

"I'm not the one who followed you and wanted to see all the other timelines."

"I should've known the machine couldn't take it."

"I shouldn't have known you wouldn't stop if it made me happy."

Virgil sighed and leaned on one of the computers. "You hated this timeline. I just wanted to get you out of it. And then... I left you in it missing half your body."

"You weren't pressed for time. You had the chance to find a universe I wouldn't run into another us." Dee responded. "This wasn't the universe with all my tools in it."

Virgil didn't have an instant response for that, leaving him staring forlornly at Dee. Dee met his gaze with the same expression.

Logan and Patton awkwardly tried to squish themselves deeper into a corner of the van, feeling as if they were intruding on something way more personal than they should be involved with.

"I'm sorry." Virgil finally said. "I know, I know I said it probably every day after the incident and maybe you're sick of hearing it, but I can't ever say it enough. I ruined everything for you, Dee. You can't even just speak right anymore, and that was after building a new voice box. And then I just left. Even if you hated me... I shouldn't have just left you to literally rebuild yourself."

"I'm not sorry too." Dee responded. "When you didn't appear in my timeline, proof that a timeline machine couldn't be built...I didn't practically force you to take me with you. It wasn't my fault that we overworked the machine. But, Virgil, I regret it."

Virgil looked disbelieving. "Sure you don't."

"I do, Virgil. You weren't right. This timeline was great. But seeing none of those different worlds with you..." Dee looked away. "If this wasn't the consequence of all that, it wasn't worth it."

Silence over took the group once more. After five solid minutes of no continued responses from either side, Logan awkwardly said, "Um, maybe we should get started on finding the unstable energy?"

This seemed to pull the two back to the present. Virgil nodded. "Uh, yeah, we should." He turned to Dee. "Do you still have the tracker?"

Dee carefully pulled something out of his arm in response, handing to Virgil what looked like a small memory card. "I wanted to lose it." Dee explained. "In case it never happened again."

Virgil frowned at the card. "I destroyed the machine once I got back to my timeline." He turned to Logan. "Will anything in this hunk of metal run this?"

Logan took the card from him. "One thing will..." He said, turning towards the time tracker and pulling Emile off the side of it. He plugging the chip in, Emile's face appearing instantly to say, "Please wait. Processing download."

After a minute, Emile's face broke out in a grin. "Download complete! Unstable energy tracker ready to run."

"Run it, please." Logan said. After reprogramming G.H.A.T.T. to be Emile, only the power button worked on the small device. All other commands or uses of the device had to be routed directly through Emile.

Logan found this vaguely disconcerting (he had seen 2001: A Space Odyssey, played Portal, and read his fair share of scholarly journals on the topic of advanced AI's), but that was a problem for a different day.

For now, Emile seemed happy to oblige, and moved to the side of screen while a string of numbers quickly flew across the other.

"The program has found an unstable energy mass capable of the destruction of <ERR0R> (at this Emile's clear speech was replaced by screeching static) timelines. Please connect the program to the main server to allow for data transmission."

Logan did as the tiny man instructed. Emile started humming 'I can go the distance' while the file uploaded.

"Data transmission complete!" Emile said cheerily. "Your next leap will take you to the timeline and within a five meter radius of the concentration of the unstable energy."

"Do you know what is holding the concentration of unstable energy?" Virgil asked.

Emile frowned and shrugged while shaking his head. "I'm afraid not. However, I can tell you where the concentration is. Like hot or cold!"

"I'm not sure if playing hot or cold while searching for the possible end to multiple universe would be appropriate." Logan responded.

"But it'd be fun!"

"Really, Patton?"

"You can always improve any situation with fun!"

"This sure isn't a weird bunch."

"They're the us rejects, Dee."

"You're wrong."

Logan glared at Dee and Virgil as they spoke. "You sure you two aren't the us rejects?"

"No one here is a reject!" Patton said, moving his foot as if he was going to stomp it and then changing his mind and only lightly tapping it on the ground as he did.

"Or none of us are rejects." Dee glanced at Patton. "You included."

"Awww, Dee, that's sweet!" Patton gushed. "This proves you're not a reject. And the same goes for you two."

"Rejects, not rejects, we should probably get going." Logan said. "The sooner we deal with the unstable energy the better."

Virgil nodded. "Yep." He waved dramatically at the floor. "Everyone, take a seat while I push the button."

"Such an important job."

"Y’know, Dee, you don’t constantly have to use your voice box."

Dee just chuckled in response as he sat down where he was standing, Logan and Patton following suit.

Virgil plopped down in the actual chair and, with the air of a serious professional doing hard work, carefully pressed the hidden blue button. Cue screeching noise and this time Logan's last thought being focused on Dee as he complained, "Our machine was even noisier than this."


	7. You're the Bomb (No, Literally)

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Good news: They've located the unstable energy! Bad news: Y'all might hate where it ended up.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Warnings: Going unconscious, mentions of death, disability guilt tripping, fake crying  
> For any chapter, if you want me to add a warning, just make a comment requesting it and it will be done!

Opening his eyes and still happily surprised to find his head intact, Logan pulled himself up before extending a hand to Patton as well.

He quickly picked up Emile, who had gone back to humming, this time the song being 'The Power of Love.'

"Where we headed, Emile?" Patton asked cheerily. Emile pointed forwards, towards the van doors.

"First, you've got to get out of the van!" He joked. Patton looked overjoyed by this. Logan rolled his eyes.

"Out we go then." Logan said, pushing open the van doors and ushering the rest of the Thomas's through.

Once they were out, and the van locked back up, Emile started actually being useful, pointing them down the street while playing hot or cold with Patton. Both Patton and Emile ignored Logan when he tried to explain that, because Emile was leading them to the source of the unstable energy, the hot or cold game was redundant.

After about ten minutes of that, with Virgil and Dee quietly catching up over all the time they had been apart in the background, the group arrived in front of a theater entrance. Letters spelled across the top of the sign announced that they had arrive halfway through a play titled, "Ultimate Storytime.”

"Is the object in there?" Logan asked Emile, hoping it wasn't if only for the sake he had no clue how they were going to get into an already started play. An already started play that, according to the sign hanging in the teller's booth, was also sold out.

Much to Logan's annoyance, Emile nodded. "My measurements would estimate it is within the main stage area, possibly on stage."

"Great." Logan said drily. "How do we get in? This place looks nice enough that I doubt we'll just be able to slip in without tickets."

"We might be able to find a back entrance..." Patton started suggesting, but was stopped when Dee and Virgil smiled at each other. "Do you two have a plan?"

"We don't got this." Dee assured them. "Just don't follow our lead."

Vaguely concerned about what was going to happen, Logan still fell in step with Patton behind Virgil and Dee. Virgil propped open the door for Dee, ushering him in with the utmost respect.

They were instantly spotted and stopped by who Logan would guess to be the teller before the tickets were sold out. He must have also doubled as bodyguard, however, and Logan once more worried about exactly how this was all going to pan out.

"Can I help you four?" The teller asked, looking as if the only thing he wanted to help them with was going back out the door.

Virgil utterly surprised Logan when his response, instead of being snippy, was to clasp his hands together and earnestly say, "Well I hope so. We have four tickets reserved under the name, uh, Famders."

_ Couldn't have picked a better fake name, could you Virgil? _ Logan thought, still confused by Virgil's oddly not-cynical approach to the situation.

"All tickets are sold out and claimed." The teller responded instantly. "And I've never heard of the last name 'Famders.'"

Virgil blinked twice, as if he didn't believe the teller, before saying, "No, you must be mistaken. We reserved them a few weeks ago. And I distinctly remember putting us under Famders."

The teller frowned, taking in the sort of rag-tag party around Virgil. "Sir, there are no reservations under that name and never have been. Now I have to ask you to-"

"This is because he's disabled, isn't it?" Suddenly, Virgil transformed again into yet another version of himself Logan thought he'd never see- he was about to cry. "And his replacement limbs scare you, don't they? So you're just going to turn us away, like  _ everyone _ seems to have done after the incident-"

Logan would  _ not _ admit to sniggering as the teller awkwardly pulled at his shirt cuff and tried to say, "Sir, no, sir, it isn't that-"

"Then what is it???!!!" Virgil asked, now full-blown crying. "We just want to see the play we reserved our tickets for, is that so much to ask-"

The teller looked very put on the spot, glancing back towards a small office in the corner. If Logan had to guess, he'd say he was getting worried his manager would hear the crying and come into the lobby only to find Virgil sobbing while violently accusing the teller of being discriminatory.

"Sir, even if I had your tickets, all the seats are taken, it's standing room only at this point." The teller said desperately. "I can offer you a refund?"

"Well... maybe..." Virgil started, as if he was actually willing to take the refund. But then Dee bounced up and down, making sure to grind his metal limbs together, making an ugly screeching noise of disapproval.

Virgil shook his head. "No! We have to see this show. We'll even take the standing room. If you just let us slip in now, I promise we won't bother your manager about it or anything!"

At the mention of his manager, the teller glanced at the back office once more worried before turning back to them and nodding his head. "Yes, yes please! Go right in- just be careful not to make too much noise."

Virgil sniffed and wiped his face. "Thank you."

The teller gave him a strained smile. "No problem, sir. Enjoy your show."

As they headed for the theater doors, and the teller disappeared back into his booth (possibly to check more thoroughly for the mention of Famders), Logan whispered to Virgil, "How many times have you guys done this?"

Virgil, now completely calm and unbothered as he wiped his face off, said, "Before... eh, the incident, Dee used to just wear the mask and we'd say he was horribly scarred in war. Sometimes I'd do makeup if we wanted a real scare when Dee pulled the mask off to reveal we were telling the truth. It was amusing."

"Didn't get us a whole lot of backstage access, too." Dee added happily.

"I don't condone of your methods." Patton said. "But it does sound like it was a lot of fun!"

"Yep." Virgil agreed. He grabbed the theater door, pulled it open as little as possible (don't want too much light spilling in) and bowed Dee through once more. "Gotta keep up the act." Virgil joked. "Never know when teller man will decide to go round two will metal arm and crier supreme."

Slipping in after Dee, Logan squinted in the darkness and found it to be just as completely filled as the teller said it was. Normally there'd be at least a few open seats, from people who forgot to come or something, but this theater was completely brimming. There were even a few people standing on the other side of the theater, probably from accidental ticket overbookings.

"Do you think Ultimate Storytime is really this good?" Patton whispered to Logan. He shrugged. As big a fan of theater as he was, he wasn't sure he had ever heard of this play. Of course, it might be-

The group glanced away from the seats when a burst of music came from the front of the stage, followed by someone offstage singing.

"It's a musical." Logan said quietly. He didn't care very much for musicals. Explained why he'd never heard of this one.

Next to him, Patton clasped his hands together and happily said, "It's a musical!"

Logan looked down at Emile, who had started to hum along with the singer. "Can you tell us what the object is now?"

Emile nodded. "It's definitely on or around the stage area. Please wave me around so I made read the stage area and I'll be able to tell you where the object is!"

While the singer began his walk on stage, Logan did as Emile instructed, started at the area behind the curtains. He assumed the object would be a prop.

So when he started to move Emile across the stage area, empty for all except the singer, he was surprised (and immediately worried) when Emile did a jumping animation saying "Ding!"

Logan looked up at the stage, seeing the singer now centered in the stage, still singing. "Emile, can you determine if the unstable energy is attached to his shirt, or his shoes, or that stupid crown on his head-"

"I'm sorry, Logan, but it's attached to none of those things." Logan looked back down at Emile, worried at the normal ecstatic man's suddenly serious demeanor.

"Then what is it attached to?" Logan said, worried he already knew the answer.

Emile looked down at the bottom of his screen. "It's attached to him."

Patton, the only one of the three nearest to Logan and Emile to hear the news, let out a little gasp. "Oh no..."

Virgil and Dee glanced at the two. "What is it?" Virgil asked.

Logan passed the news before saying, "Can we still safely remove the unstable energy from him?"

Dee didn't respond for a moment, half-mouth moving as he seemed to be running through various possibilities, before he shrugged. "I know. The way to not dispel the unstable energy... it doesn't require breaking the object down to atoms and spreading them across the timeline."

The other three cringed, none of them idiots. "So that's not a good idea." Patton said.

"It's not the only one we have." Dee matched.

Logan sighed and rubbed the bridge of his nose. "I refuse to break some innocent down to his atoms until we have zero other options."  _ Perhaps not even after that _ Logan added mentally. "Let's just wait for the show to end and get a chance to talk to him. Maybe we'll think of something before then..."

Everyone in the group seemed to have the similar mindset of 'look at us, a big fxcking group of idiotic geniuses' but they nodded slowly nonetheless. Settling down to lean on the walls and sit on the floor, the group watched as the bearer of unstable energy continued his play with the rest of the carefree actors.

_ Carefree actors who could die if we don't fix this. _ Logan thought before adding,  _ Carefree actor who could die if we don't come up with a better plan than atom rearrangement across the cosmos _

That thought damped Logan's particular mood throughout the rest of the show, running multiple scenarios through his mind only to have each one fail- one after one after one.

Finally, the lights came up as the actors all ran through to give their bows, the bearer of unstable energy going last in the very center to the outrageous approval of the audience. If Logan was even more daft than he had recently proven to be, he would have sworn that the actor even turned slightly to wink at the sad group of Thomas's in the corner.

"Y'know, that dude looks  _ really _ familiar." Virgil said while the group careful squished themselves in the corner to allow the other playgoers to get out. "I can't put my finger on it..."

Logan shrugged. "He's far away. Maybe he's a copy of some actor in your timeline."

"Maybe..." Virgil said uncertainly.

Once the crowds had finally cleared out, the group made their way forward to the stage. There was a small incident trying to get past the guard, but Virgil started crying again and it was cleared up fairly quickly.

It wasn't hard to find the main actor's dressing room, as it bore a huge shining gold star on it. A plaque was slipped into it, meant to be interchangeable for each performance, and it was currently bearing the name, "Princey."

Logan rolled his eyes. "Well he sure thinks highly of himself."

"That or his parents suck at naming kids." Virgil added.

"You might as well come in!" The group startled when a sing-song voice called from the other side of the door. "I'm not sure how you got past the security but you clearly aren't rabid if you have the time to insult my perfection of a nickname."

Logan tapped the door before opening it, mouthing "Thin walls" at the group before actually turning the knob and heading in.

Inside, the main star of the show (and, more importantly, the bearer of unstable energy) was facing away from them, pulling on a red jacket that was, in Logan's opinion, criminally emblazoned with an excessive amount of gold sequins.

"You know, I haven't had fans dedicated enough to trick their way past security yet and I have to say I feel a little honoured to know someone's finally done it!" The actor exclaimed dramatically. "Though, of course, it's really you who should be honoured to be in my presence."

Before any of them could say anything in response, ranging from Patton's "You're so talented" or Virgil's "We're here to tear you atom from atom" the egotistical actor turned around, broad smile on.

A broad smile that died the moment he saw the four of them and realized someone had copied his face.

"Um. I lied. I'm not honoured by... whatever this is." He said, thrown heavily off his balance by the four nearly identical faces staring back at him. "This is creepy and you need help."

"No, princey, we're here because you copied our faces." Virgil said ominously. "We want it back."

The actor looked even more horrified and tripped over his prop crown trying to back into the wall. Finding that Virgil was still looming over him, he grabbed the crown and held it in front of him like a weapon.

"GET YOUR OWN FACE"

"YOU HAVE IT"

" _ Guys _ " Patton cut in, getting between the terrorizing Virgil and the terrorized actor. "Now is really not the time for this."

Virgil rolled his eyes. "I just think it's a little presumptuous of him to assume we stole  _ his _ face versus the other way around."

Logan sighed while Patton helped pull the actor up. "Sorry about this!" Patton said cheerily, brushing princey's jacket off while the actor stared suspiciously at Virgil.

"He's going to steal your face." Dee said helpfully.

Logan pointed at Dee. "He only speaks in lies. You'll be fine. At least, on the face stealing front."

At this point, the actor looked traumatized. "What the fxck is going on???"

Patton smiled. "We're all different versions of Thomas Sanders across different timelines!" He said as if it were the most reasonable thing in the world. "Do you have a middle name we can call you by?"

"Roman." The actor said immediately, dealing with the one part of all this he actually understood.

"Okay, Roman! I, well, I'm not sure how to put this..."

"You're a bomb."

Roman raised an eyebrow. "You're choosing now to compliment me, or...?"

"No, you're a literal bomb." Virgil said with a thin smile. "Like, blow-up-and-kill-gazillions type of bomb."

Logan frowned at the very lifelike colour of paper Roman went at that news. "You know guys, I don't think this is the best way to break it to him."

"What makes you say that?" Dee asked drily while Roman slowly sank to the ground to cradle his head in his hands.

"That machine you guys were holding up earlier... it wasn't a camera, was it?" Roman asked slowly from where he was having his lovely mental break on the ground.

Logan tilted his head. "No. What else do you think it could be?"

Roman looked up at him, narrowing his eyes. "Time tech."

Patton clapped. "It is! In a way, anyways. Did you drop out of college to become an actor too?"

Roman shook his head. "Time travel was an idea I possessed for exactly two months of high school before I realized the error of my geeky ways and got into theater."

"That just makes you a theater geek, you know." Logan pointed out.

"Shut up."

"If you only cared about it for two months, how did you guess we had time tech so quickly?" Virgil asked.

"Because I knew it would come back to screw up my life." Roman said annoyedly. "I've watched Back to the Future."

"That's hardly a textbook resource for this sort of thing."

"I don't know about your timeline but we don't have textbooks on time travel around here."

Logan rolled his eyes. "Maybe spreading his atoms across the universe would be okay." He joked darkly. He didn't mean it, of course, but seeing a version of him who quit time travel before even getting into it and still managed to gain an ego was disconcerting and  he didn't like it.

The rainbow dyed hair was also throwing him but not enough to murder Roman via disintegration.

Roman and Patton immediately made identical noises of alarm and worry while Virgil offered Logan a high five.

"Doesn't it violate some time travel law to hurt alternate versions of yourself????" Roman demanded.

"It's violation just to let you see us, in theory." Virgil responded with a shrug. "I think we could break one more quote-unquote law."

"No law breaking!" Patton said, waving his finger at the other three. "And no spreading Roman's atoms across the universe if we can avoid it!! And especially no being okay with it!!"

"Thank yo- wait, unless you can avoid it???"

"We'll only do it if we have another choice." Dee said with a frown.

"And if you just... don't do it?"

"An uncountable number of people and timelines will be absolutely destroyed, yours included." Logan explained.

"Oh." Roman frowned before muttering to himself, "Be an actor, I said. Get away from time travel, I said. It'll work out fine, I said."

Logan looked away from Roman while he berated himself and back at Emile. "Estimate on how much time before we can't save him?"

Emile, who was now shown sitting criss-cross on the ground, sighed while a string of numbers and calculations ran across the top of the screen. "Roughly five-point-five hours."

“Great.” Roman complained. “I’m going to miss the newest episode of America’s Got Talent.”

"Not if we can help it." Patton assured him, even though his smile was tight in a way that suggested he was very worried they couldn't help it.

Roman frowned and leaned against the prop box behind him. "So, since we clearly have nothing better to do, care to tell me exactly how I'm a bomb? Other than my exploding beauty."

Logan took it as a good sign for Roman and an awful sign for him that the actor was still able to crack his jokes and pet his ego.

"Every single one of your atoms is imbued with an equal measure of the unstable energy that was released during a... poorly planned timeline jump." Virgil said while Logan winced slightly. "That unstable energy, when so close together, will eventually become too hazardous and, well, explode."

"And you can't just, like, take the energy away? Preferably without tearing me apart?"

"We know." Dee said. "If we didn't, we wouldn't have done it already."

"Well do any of you have the tools to build a byproduct reverse particle vacuum?"

The entire group looked bewildered at Roman, who shrugged. "I stopped looking into time travel; I didn't stop going to school."

Patton looked among the four of them. "Do you guys know what that is, because the only vacuum I know about picks up dust so uh."

Logan moved his hands as if he could pull an easy explanation from thin air. "Theoretically, a byproduct reverse particle vacuum, often just called the Brip vacuum, could be set to certain segments of particle types, sever their connection with the main object and/or organism, and remove them to be dealt with separately."

"But it's never been done." Virgil said. "It's theoretical because, at least in my timeline, it is considered an impossible problem. To create one in less than six hours? We'd have no chance."

"I mean, again, we don't have anything better to do, do we?" Roman asked. "I can't think of anything else that might even maybe do this. If we fail..." Roman gulped. "Then we failed, but at least we tried first."

After a moment of solemn silence, Logan nodded. "I might have the tools we'd need. But they're back in my timeline."

"Okay, then." Roman said, pushing himself off the ground. "Let's go then. I don't have anything better to do with the possible last hours of my life."

The group of quintuplets made their way out of the theater, getting a weird eye from the teller as they passed.

Reaching the van sparked a mild debate as Roman said it looked like a "moldy hybrid of an egg and a sandwich" which, as Logan explained very clearly, made "absolutely no sense on any level."

"It makes perfect sense if you look at it!" Roman protested. "You didn't even give it a decent paint job."

"I'm a scientist, not a painter."

"And I'm an actor who knows that van needs a paint job!"

Virgil rolled his eyes and propped open the van door. "Get into the moldy egg-sandwich hybrid, Roman."

Roman also elected to complain about the fact he had to sit on the floor of the moldy egg-sandwich. Logan blessed the time-travel gods when they leaped and he was given brief peace.


	8. No, Me

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> In which the plot takes a vacation.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Warnings: Waking up from being unconscious, verbal fight  
> For any chapter, if you want me to add a warning, just make a comment requesting it and it will be done!

When they arrived, Logan rolled his eyes when Roman woke up and complained about the fact he was  _ still _ on the floor of the fugly van.

"Did you think you would move?"

"I hoped."

Logan pushed open the van door and dramatically waved at Roman. "Get out, then."

"Gladly." Roman said, shoving himself out of the van and then making annoyed princey noises when he realized the van had landed on custom designed struts to hold it up for undercarriage work that, as such, made the drop longer.

"You planned that, didn't you?"

"How could I, the owner of a moldy egg-sandwich hybrid, plan something as elaborate as that?"

"Who owns a moldy egg-sandwich hybrid?" Remy's voice called from somewhere else in the house. "Second question: Who came up with the term moldy egg-sandwich hybrid?"

While the rest of the Thomas's climbed out of the van, and Patton took a second to help Roman up, Remy appeared in the doorway.

"I did!" Roman said, still getting up and not yet having spotted Remy. "Because that is the only term proper enough to describe the monstrosity that is that van!"

"Well we don't think he's cute for his artistry." Remy joked, Roman finally on his feet and glancing back to see him.

Roman grinned broadly. "Someone who understands it!"

Logan rolled his eyes. Roman had heard two lines from Remy and he seemed to be smitten. "Call me a gay disaster- have you seen that bozo..." He muttered under his breath while Remy smiled back at Roman.

"Nice to meet you, hun. The more versions of Logan in this house the hotter it seems to get."

"I think you mean Thomas's." Logan corrected immediately.

"I know what I said.”

Logan would not admit to violently flushing. He would, however, admit to the slight falter in Roman's expression when he realized the very obvious flirt at Logan.

"Nice to meet you too." Remy said with a gesture at Dee. "What am I to call you two sugars?"

"Not Dee."

Virgil sighed. "He only lies."

"Reverse Pinocchio. Cool."

"And I'm Roman!" Roman said with plenty of dramatic flair, even going as far as to take Remy's hand and kiss the back of it. "My friends and lovers call me princey."

Logan felt if he rolled his eyes any harder they'd go out the back of his head. Roman was as subtle as a peacock at noon on a sunny day and he had as much self-restraint as one.

Remy chuckled. "You're quite the charmer, aren't you, sugar?"

"So I've been told."

"By who, your reflection?" Logan countered from where he had leaned against the van.

Roman made offended princey noises while Patton, Virgil, and Dee backed away from the other three.

"How long before he admits that they're dating, do you think?" Patton asked.

"I'll give it a parry of three insults."

"I wouldn't say four."

"Logan, don't be jealous just because I'm prettier than you."

"We have the same face."

"I have the prettier version."

Remy grinned and sat himself down on the nearest table.

"I forgot you still haven't taken off your stage makeup."

"Bxtch I was born this pretty."

"Let's find you a washcloth and see if that logic holds up."

"I will get a washcloth, just to prove you wrong!" Roman said, surprisingly dignified as he turned around and stormed off to get one. There was a brief silence as the bystanders stopped muttering, and the others waited.

When Roman returned, he was holding a wet towel, as promised, and violently scrubbing his face with it.

He threw it down when finished, it stained with blush and lipstick. His face was then... well, basically identical to all the others, unsurprisingly enough. The main difference was his green eyes and that was basically it.

"See?"

"I repeat: We have the same face."

"What was the point of me getting the washcloth if you still refuse to acknowledge the fact I'm prettier?"

"I don't have to acknowledge something if it isn't true."

Roman clutched a hand to his chest. "You continue to wound me with your lies!"

"That's his thing." Logan said, hooking a thumb in Dee's direction.

"Yo, gay messes!" Virgil called out. "As much as I'm living for this throw-down it's kinda cutting into our impossible science time. So, could you just, like, pick a winner and get on with it?"

"I nominate myself to be the winner." Logan replied instantly.

"I  _ declare _ myself winner!" Roman matched.

"Boys, boys; you're both cute." Remy said as he slipped off the table. "But one of you is much more kissable."

Remy then helpfully proved his point by kissing a still fuming-at-Roman Logan.

Logan decided the surprise kiss (and the blush he'd deny came with it) was worth it for the look on Roman's face when he realized he had lost before he had even begun.

...and maybe the kiss was nice just within itself.

Remy pulled away, same old smile on his face as he turned around and headed towards the kitchen. "I'mma make all you sweethearts some coffee."

Logan stood in place, still blushing, maybe dumb smiling just a  _ little _ bit before he shook his head and, while following Remy into the kitchen, yelled, "Wait- when did we start dating?!"

"Five years ago when you invited me to live with you."

_ "WHAT?" _

Patton squealed happily while Virgil commented, "A shame no one told him earlier. Maybe then he wouldn't keep blushing like a fool every time they so much as get near to each other."

"Bold of you to assume he wouldn't keep blushing even if he hadn't known for seven years."

"Fair point, Dee."

Roman turned to the spectators, splaying his arms at them in annoyance. "Why did no one tell me they were dating????"

"Logan himself was in denial about it like five minutes ago, to be fair." Virgil pointed out. "Also, watching you angrily yell about how you're prettier when we know it's a losing battle is amusing."

"I don't like any of you." Roman said defensively, crossing his arms while Virgil and Dee snickered. Patton instantly frowned and Roman was forced to recant, "Except you, Patton."

Logan came back in then, now holding a coffee mug, his cheeks still faintly coloured.

"How is it even possibly to be dating someone without knowing for five years..." He was muttering to himself as he took a seat in his work chair.

He took a long sip of the coffee before lazily turning to look at the others.

"Did you hear I'm dating?" He asked. "I only just found out myself."

Virgil rolled his eyes. "Logan, we need you to not be a useless gay right now."

"I'm not sure that's possible."

Remy popped his head in through the doorway. "Are the rest of you going to come get coffee or am I already on waitress duty?"

"We're coming, Remy!" Patton called back, happily getting up for what, for him, would be less coffee and more coffee-flavoured milk and cream. Virgil and Dee followed after him, Dee grabbing Roman's arm when he made no move to do much more than pout.

Left alone, Logan took the second to rest his head on his desk.

"Four nearly identical looking versions of me all with wildly different lives, the possible end of the world in roughly five hours, and it turns out I'm dating." He murmured into the table. "This day has been too fxcking crazy."


	9. T E A M  M O N T A G E

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> It's the chapter all of you have been waiting for...  
> T E A M M O N T A G E

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Warnings: A sexual innuendo, worry, description of screaming, false hope  
> For any chapter, if you want me to add a warning, just make a comment requesting it and it will be done!

By the time his timeline-clones had gotten their coffee and returned, Logan had managed to half collect himself and pull out scratch paper.

"Okay." He said as calm and collected a voice he could muster. "So, where does one start when trying to build a possibly impossible machine?"

"At the beginning!"

"Thank you, Patton, that input is extremely valuable."

Patton just grinned in response. Emile, who had been propped up on the edge of the desk, was chuckling.

"Why don't we not start by defining what we need for the Brip vacuum to work?" Dee suggested.

Logan tapped his mechanical pencil on the desk. "Well, there's building the physically components of the device itself. It'll have to be strong to handle all the energy it'll take to power it, and then the unstable energy it'll take in afterwards."

"I've got us covered there." Virgil said with a nod of his head.

"The easiest way for it to function- in the terms of the easiest way for us to work it- would be to use programming to define when the elements are safe, when they aren't, when to go, when to stop; everything, really, to make it function."

Patton grinned. "I think I'll be up to that! And Emile can help me!"

The Tamagotchi nodded energetically on his screen.

"Then there's two halves to the science of it." Logan chose now to bite the end of his pencil. "In theory, I can define what each element is, what each component means and how it must be retrieved, but the separation of unstable energy from the rest of the organism is completely out of my ballfield."

Dee smiled. "Unlucky for us, that doesn't happen to be my area of science."

"Is there anything I can do?" Roman asked, looking sheepish. "I know I'm not really a resident expert on, well, any of this compared to you guys but, well, it is my life on the line. And possibly uncountable others. I, I don't just want to lounge around."

"You could be general lab assistant." Logan rolled his eyes when Roman looked affronted. "I'm not just saying that to mock you, surprisingly enough. This is a lot of work, Roman, and it's roughly one person per area- not including the dream team of Patton and Emile over there. You might not be able to spearhead any of the research, but I believe in your ability to help us with it."

"I don't know if I should take that as an insult or a compliment."

"It's both."

"Oh, so clever."

"I'm smart like that."

"And I'm here to provide snacks," Remy said in the background where he was plugging the coffee machine into the garage wall. They had decided it would be quicker to move it, "to the snacks."

"Oh, careful, Rem." Virgil teased. "You might make Logan jealous."

"I can tell him he's the only snack I'd eat if that helps." 

Logan spluttered his coffee and threw his mechanical pencil at Remy. "I AM TRYING TO WORK!"

"Love ya too, babe."

The first five minutes of work time were spent productively by most of the group and spent uselessly screaming into a table (out of love) for Logan.

When Logan finally got around to actually doing his job, the workplace was fully in session. Logan and Dee sat across from each at the main table, scribbling excessively on scratch paper and constantly having to replace their pencils' lead.

On the other side of the room, Patton and Emile chatted endlessly about puns and Disney movies (with occasional comments from Roman) while the click-clacking of keys echoed along with their words. For all he said about only dabbling in it, Patton was a fast programmer and an even faster typist.

The van had been moved off of the struts for Virgil to work on them, moving between sitting on the ground between them and precariously dangling on top of them while his ever-growing chunk of metal followed him about as he worked violently on it.

In between all the messes, Roman was running around with tools and papers and ideas, singing as he went with a sparkle in his eye. Remy moved more lazily around, carrying platters of sandwiches, cookies, fruits, and always coffee.

And of course, that was just the chaos when they were keeping to their corners.

Dee wandering over to help Virgil when he, multiple times, got a limb/finger stuck in one of the mechanisms or couldn't manage to fit a piece into place always ended with one of them taunting the other.

Patton sometimes passing Emile to Logan and Dee via Remy, the digital friend bearing messages of power and reminders they could do it!

Dee or Logan leaning waaaaaay too far over the table to glance at the other's work, correcting mistakes and sometimes just shrugging and saying, "Not my area of expertise."

Virgil wandering over to grab a coffee, needing a moment to stretch his legs, and then coming up beside Patton to comment about not only the programming (of which he had learned the basics after a few jobs relating to computers that had interested him) but also the computer's hardware (of which Patton also knew the basics).

When one of them looked too stressed Roman would grab their hands and force them into a dance, meeting their concerns of time with, "My life, my dance. If you burn yourself out you're not going to do me any good."

Remy mostly just made sure to slip them food at what always seemed to be the perfect moment. He also sometimes kissed them, but was very biased in the fact he only seemed to be kissing Logan.

Once, roughly two and a half hours into their work, Roman accidentally started a song chain until they were all singing, in various levels of 'on-tune,' "Livin' on a Prayer.”

The closer to the deadline they got, the less interacting the group did. Every second that passed was a reminder of how few they had left.

At half an hour left, speaking peaked if only because the projects started to merge. Patton had finished writing the program and Emile had finished running through it for errors. Virgil was a handful of hammer bangs from finishing what looked like a coffin you got in head first. Roman was running out of things to do as Dee and Logan checked over what they believed to be finished equations and wonderings.

Equations went into programs and then another few minutes were lost as they realized the programming had an inaccurate variable carry-over and the equation was using inaccurate values.

Then programs went into computer chips that got plugged into the hunk of metal that was the Brip vacuum and Virgil was only pride when it went off without a hitch.

And then they ran the hypotheticals through once because they didn't have time for more and they were running at ten minutes to go when they all threw up their hands and said it was as close as they could make it.

"Pretty good job for six people against an unsolvable problem." Virgil said, patting the Brip vacuum. "Even if it fails miserably."

"Why don't you guys talk about failing miserably after I've gotten in it." Roman said, looking distrusting at the machine. "How will this work anyways?"

Virgil grinned. "You're going to stand really still, and we're going to lower it on top of you while climatically singing 'Welcome to the Black Parade.'"

"I hate this plan."

"We could also just put it on its side and have you climb in, but that's a lot less fun."

"I pick that plan over lowering coffin of doom with emo music."

With a roll of his eyes, Virgil moved to tilt the Birp vacuum over with Dee's help. Even once it was in position, however, Roman still looked worried.

"You sure this will work?" He asked.

Logan waved his hand in a so-so motion. "If we did everything right, yes. It's possible we didn't, and I'm sorry that possibility exists, Roman." Logan looked away. "I really am."

"I mean, at least a chance is better than nothing, right?" Roman said with a semi-hopeful smile. He then turned back to the Birp, took a deep breath, and climbed in.

Virgil screwed the bottom shut. "I didn't have the heart to tell him if this goes wrong he may have to experience parts of his atoms being stripped from him." Virgil said quietly.

The group all looked away from the Birp. "Lord, I hope this works." Logan said quietly while Patton solemnly started tapping in the starting code.

After a moment the machine started making a whirring noise and everyone instinctively winced, already waiting to hear an echo of their voice screaming in broken tones.

For the five minutes it took for the machine to work, pulling away the unstable energy without pulling away the parts that made Roman Roman, they didn't un-wince. They waited, always afraid at any moment they would hit the bad juncture.

But whatever gods there were had at least some form of pity in their immortal souls, because the five minutes passed and then the top unscrewed by automatic rules and Roman was popping out, looking shell-shocked but okay; completely okay.

"It... it worked?" Roman said uncertainly. They all nodded their heads in agreement. "It worked!" It was almost too good to be true.

And then the machine beeped. And in one second there was the sickening realization that the gods had no pity, but damn if they didn't know how to make you think so. That the minute something was too good to be true, it was false.


	10. Sunshine, Leather, and Coffee

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The one y'all might lowkey hate me for.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Warnings: Swearing, panic, self-sacrifice, fear of losing someone you love, explosion, someone getting caught in the explosion  
> For any chapter, if you want me to add a warning, just make a comment requesting it and it will be done!

The group crowded around the Birp vacuum immediately, craning to read what the screen said.

"ERR0R: Energy distributor...?" Patton asked, looking around the group. "That isn't any of my programming."

Logan was about to comment it wasn't his equations, and briefly wondered if they'd have to go through the round-robin method of accusation, but Virgil suddenly had both hands in his hair looking like the sky was falling and the answer as to who's area it was was suddenly very clear.

"I knew it wasn't going to work fxck this is my fault not again-"

Dee grabbed Virgil's arms, pulling them away from his head as he asked, "What is it?"

"The energy distributor- it's the reason the unstable energy got out in the first place." Virgil said, agitated. "Because Logan didn't have one the unstable energy latched onto Roman, so you have to have one to stop it from clumping together!"

"And...?" Patton asked biting his tongue as he did so.

Virgil stomped his foot. "They're hard to make! It's one thing to attach it to a preexisting system but to a new one that isn't meant to jump through time, but to take pure unstable energy and release it..."

"Virgil, just tell us what you did instead." Logan asked, sounding more like a plea.

Virgil looked Logan in the eyes, his own filled own with despair. "I replaced it with a general filtering system targeted onto unstable energy. I hoped that if it filtered enough we'd have at least a minute to transfer the energy to the van, which had a working energy distributor, but it didn't work! Not enough... By my calculations, enough of it should be dispelled to not destroy universes, but..."

"It's still pretty bad." Logan finished. Virgil could only nod.

A few seconds passed in dreaded silence before Remy, who had been quietly observing affairs in the background, broke it with, "Emile, can you predict how long there is until the remaining unstable energy explodes?"

A second of processing. "Five minutes, at the very most." Emile said sadly. "Blast radius is currently not calculable, but can range from a few feet to this entire block."

"Is there anything that can be done to lessen the explosion in that time?" Logan asked desperately. Logically, he knew there was probably nothing.

He didn't feel like being perfectly logical in that moment.

Emile processed again. "Well..."

"What is it?!" Logan demanded immediately.

Emile rubbed the back of his neck. "I believe Virgil installed a failsafe button on the Birp, in case something went wrong with the extraction and you wanted to get Roman out?"

Virgil gave a tiny nod from where he was tiredly leaning on Dee.

Emile somehow saw the nod and continued. "It wasn't made for this purpose, but I believe due to the way in which the machine is connected, pressing the button at the moment of the blast may help force more of the unstable energy through the filter and lessen the explosion range."

"Well, then we can just tape the button down before we hightail it!" Roman suggested before following with, "Right?"

Virgil looked away. "I was worried something might drop or break and the button would get pressed on accident, possibly hurting Roman in the middle of the extraction. It's been designed to only work with slightly unsteady and humanly warm contact depressing the button." Virgil gave a sad chuckle. "Paranoia really fxcked me over this time. Who would've thought."

The group all looked at each other, the ticking time bomb and the need for sacrifice staring them all down.

"I won't do it." Dee said after a moment. "It hasn't happened to me before. Even if I make it..."

"No!" Virgil said angrily. "I'm not letting you sacrifice yourself again! It was my fault before, it's my fault again and it's my turn to take the fall!"

"I couldn't bear to see either of you get hurt." Patton said, pained. "Any of you, really. I can do it."

"No, it should be me." Roman chimed in right after. "It was my life before we tried and it should be my life now. I was expecting it anyways."

Logan shook his head, the rest of the Thomas's voices as they fought over who should die creating an awful echoing quality that he absolutely hated. Finally, he snapped.

"Everyone out!" He yelled, gaining everyone's attention. When no one made a move for the door Logan continued, "I said out! My timeline, my rules! Get out, and run as far down the street as your legs can take you!"

"Logan-" Patton started, but instantly shut up when Logan glared at him. He supposed glare wasn't the right word, really; it was more like a stare of utter fear and pain.

Whatever you wanted to call it, it got Patton to slowly nod his head and hightail it out the door. After another moment, Roman, Virgil, and Dee followed him.

Remy didn't.

"Remy, go." Logan said, tired. Emile was still propped on the desk next to him, though Emile the digital figure had hidden off in the code, leaving behind a beeping timer. Three minutes, twenty-eight seconds. Not a lot of time when you also had to run.

Remy sipped his coffee, surprisingly calm all things considered. "It's my timeline, too, Lo. You can't get rid of me that easily."

"I'm not letting you do this."

"Like I'd let you?"

Logan turned to face Remy, leaning on the machine that was currently dooming one of them. "You're just my roommate, Remy. Roommate turned boyfriend aside, this wasn't your project. Not your work. Not your mistakes. I'm not letting you sacrifice yourself for this."

"I'm my own person, sugar. I have the right to sacrifice myself for causes outside of my personal impact." Remy matched, still sipping his coffee.

"Please, Rem." Logan begged, dignity not an important element at the moment. "Five years just to figure out we're dating and you want me to throw it away now?"

"I'm not asking you to throw anything anyway, sweetheart." Remy said, finally placing down his coffee so he could approach Logan. "I'm just asking you for what I have decided is the very reasonable demand of you not letting yourself be blown up."

Logan looked away just as Remy reached the point right in front of him. The clock now read two minutes and fifty-six seconds. "It's one of us, Rem; the demand isn't reasonable if losing you is the consequence."

"Hun, look at me." Logan didn't. "You're so cliched." Remy gently turned Logan's face back towards him.

"The answer's no, Remy, I'm not going to budge on this."

Remy laughed. "Thomas Logan Sanders, you are the most stubborn man I have ever met. And you and I both know there's only ever been one person who could make you budge, and you're looking at him."

"Not this time, Rem. It matters too much now."

"It does matter too much, love, for both of us. And you of all people should know I am just as stubborn as you."

Logan shook his head violently. It wasn't really an answer or a reason, but it was the only thing Logan was willing to accept right now: Come Hell or high water he was going to be the one pressing the button.

Remy rolled his eyes. "You know I love you, right?"

"Took me five years, but, yeah, I think I've got that down." Logan said, his voice cracking halfway through.

"You're crying." Remy said, wiping at tears Logan hadn't realized he was shedding. "You know what that means."

This time, when Remy pulled him into a hug, Logan hugged back.

It was warmer and nicer than it should have been, Logan decided. He was leaning on a bomb, that in barely a minute and a half would be blowing him and who knows what else up. He was saying goodbye to someone he had barely realized he loved. The hug should have felt bitter and cold, a constant reminder of goodbyes and unfulfilled promises and a life that was now gone.

But instead it was sunshine that turned a tan into a burn, it was rainbows that you couldn't be able to feel and yet in that moment he could, it was soft leather and the smell of coffee and the feel of warm metal clinking against each other and threatening to leave minor cuts across your skin; a constant reminder that someone else was there.

It was  _ nice _ and Logan hated that it shouldn't be and loved that it was anyways.

"I don't really want to let go." He mumbled into Remy's neck, who just laughed. Logan both hated and loved that as well- he was a mess, a mini wreck and Remy still had coffee on his breath and a laugh on his tongue.

"Normally I'd oblige, but I'm afraid I can't this time." Remy responded easily.

"I'm sorry." Logan said. He wasn't sure what he expected in response. It wasn't what he got.

"I'm sorry too."

Because in a single moment, lost in what he mistakenly thought were final memories, Thomas Logan Sanders, supposed genius, forgot that his sleepless punk boyfriend was also a  _ majorless _ sleepless punk.

And that just a month ago, before he got the chef job, he was a security guard.

So it was too easy for Remy to turn the hug into a throw, to unlatch Logan's in comparison weak arms as he stumbled and tripped through the doorway. Before he could turn around, before he could react and stop Remy, metal and human hands were wrapping around him, and Dee was carrying him away with the ease of a cyborg, despite his undignified screams and attempts to escape.

In the minute it took for the bomb to go off, in between the pain Logan realized what he should have at the beginning, that Remy had always planned to be the sacrifice if something went wrong. And that Dee, who could understand the need to save someone even if it hurt you, would of course agree to help him.

That realization didn't bring him much solace as he heard the sound of fire blasting up to leave everything else raining down.


	11. Epilogue

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The epilogue. Let's see how this goes.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Warnings: Prosthetic mention, food mention  
>  For any chapter, if you want me to add a warning, just make a comment requesting it and it will be done!

**Two weeks later**

Logan blinked awake, the action still reminding him of each time he woke up in the timeline machine. For a hot second he still thought he was there, until the feel of his sheets and the wall above him reminded him, yet again, it was just his room.

After a moment of silent contemplation of the ceiling, Logan rolled out of bed, his feet finding the stupid little TARDIS slippers Remy had gotten him a few years ago, a gift for one breakthrough or another.

He shuffled his way into the hallway, brushing his teeth while ignoring other unused toothbrush.

Making his way to the stairs he could hear faint humming winding its way up the way. Patton? Roman? Logan couldn't decide which it would be.

The humming stopped when he managed to trip down the staircase and he learned it was Patton as the voice worriedly called, "Lo? You okay?"

"Yeah, Pat, I'm good." Logan grumbled while he got off the bottom of the stairs, rubbing his knee. "Just tripped on the staircase."

"How long have you lived there that you're tripping down the stairs?"

"Shut up, princey."

Walking into the kitchen, Logan was unsurprised to find his laptop open. He had forgotten to close it last night when he went to bed, leaving the three-split voice call open.

It had taken a little while to rig it up, but the Dream Team who had built a Birp vacuum in five hours didn't doubt for a minute they could do it, and now the four elsewhere Thomas's had the ability to ring into Logan's life whenever his laptop was open.

Roman and Patton were sitting in their own corners, with Dee and Virgil sharing a single one. After Virgil had mixed together his singular timeline travel solutions (Logan's timeline machine was damaged after the explosion and he had more important things to focus on then fixing it) Dee had followed Virgil back into his old timeline and they were intent on building their own timeline machine once more.

Much more carefully, too, with the entire group swearing against everything that was everything no unstable energy could ever get out again.

(But in case it would, they had also agree to properly work on the Brib vacuum once Dee and Virgil's machine was up and running. To be safe.)

Logan settled down at the table, picking up his cold coffee from the night before and sipping it.

"Dude, that stuff has to be nasty by now." Virgil said, looking vaguely disgusted.

"It's still coffee."

"It's not like you have a very quick way to make coffee." Dee added, and Logan glanced half-guiltily at the coffee machine on the counter all of ten feet away from him.

"Too far." He said with a lazy shrug.

"I have to do everything for you, don't I?"

"Yes. It's what you get for scaring me to literal death."

Remy rolled his eyes from where he was frying bacon on the stove. "You're so lazy."

"Yes I am."

"At least he's admitting to it." Roman joked.

Remy sighed. "Admitting to it, but doing nothing about it. First you had a Crofter's addiction, now you're refusing to move."

"This one comes from a place of trauma and as such I refuse to do anything about it, because I'm a professional smarty-pants according to you." Logan said with a yawn. "Speaking of, pass me the Crofter's. It feels like a gulp-it-down-like-water sort of day."

"Your reasoning is awful for a professional smarty-pants."

"Crofter's, Rem."

"I can't."

Logan sighed. "I swear, if we're out-"

"No, I just mean if you don't want this bacon to burn I've got to keep my one hand where it is."

Logan frowned and turned to look at Remy. He only now realized one of his sleeves was resting limply on the stump protruding from his shoulder. "Where's your prosthetic?"

"Locked in the closet."

"I don't recall programming your arm to be gay."

"That's because, and I say this with love, you  _ suck _ at making prosthetics." Remy replied with a flip of bacon. "The hand slapped me and now it's in the punishment closet."

"Yeah, well, if you don't want the arm I  _ slaved over _ to make you functional after you did a stupid, you can have Dee the Betrayer make you one."

"Are you ever going to keep calling me that?"

"Nope."

"I support your decision, Logan." Virgil added, getting elbowed in the side by Dee in response. "What?! I sympathize with him."

Before Virgil or Dee could continue, Logan's computer dinged as an email icon appeared in the corner. Clicking on it, Logan briefly covered his timeline-clones' faces while he checked the sender.

"Who's the mail from?" Remy called, having heard the noise.

"That university I applied too."

Logan opened the email while Remy Ooooed in apprehension.

"Mr. Sanders, blah blah blah,"

"Did I just hear Logan blah-blah-blah an important scholarly email?"

"I am tired and I have no Crofter's, Rem. I am prone to dangerous and wild things in this state."

"Tell us what it says!!" Patton interrupted from behind the email.

"Uhh, let's see..." Logan smiled. "I'm accepted for the position as head of nerve replacement, reassignment, and replication studies!"

The Thomas's on the other side of the screen clapped happily. "I'm so proud of you, kiddo!" Patton added.

Remy slid the bacon onto a plate and came over to the table with both it and a stack of waffles. "I'm happy for you, sugar, but are you sure you want to take it?"

Logan rolled his eyes and closed the laptop, giving him and Remy privacy. "I thought we already talked about this. I'm going to get you back the ability to burn your right hand on hot coffee, Rem."

Rem pressed his hand to his heart. "This is how I know it's true love. But, seriously, I don't want you to just give up on your project and all your studies just to let me feel things through one hand."

"I finished the project, love, remember? In a way. We all agree time travel is probably just shifting a few variables around anyways. And my studies are now completely and utterly focused on the art of creating new nerves." Logan replied. "If it makes you feel better, you can pretend I'm doing it just for the rest of the world."

Remy raised an eyebrow. "You've been denying me rights to cutesy couple names ever since I woke up from my, as you eloquently put it, 'stupid.' What have I done to earn 'love?'"

Logan smirked. "It was my clever move to get you distracted and stop discussing things that are already set in stone."

"You know, I think we were in a situation just like that a little while ago, and I recall my discussion changing things."

"You cheated. You used your strength against me, a useless, weak geek."

"No calling yourself useless."

"No talking about your stupid."

Remy shook his head. "Guess we're at a stalemate."

"What did we do the last time we had one of those?"

"Do you mean before or after I cheated?"

"Before."

"Oh, well, I believe we did this." Remy leaned forward and wrapped Logan around in a one-armed hug. A small part in the back of Logan's mind remembered everything from the last hug, every sight and feeling and smell, and decided that somehow this one was a million times better. Maybe it was the lack of danger. Maybe it was the incredibly normal plate of bacon and waffles sitting at his arm. Maybe it was the fact that now, there were no goodbyes or unfilled promises or lives gone. Just sunshine, leather, and coffee.

"I don't think we do this enough."

"Well, we have plenty of time for it now."

Logan laughed, happy and loud. It echoed comfortably around the kitchen. "That's good. No, that's great. That's perfect."

_ This is perfect _ Logan thought happily, sinking even deeper into Remy's grasp.

**Author's Note:**

> I hope you're enjoying this!  
> My Tumblr: https://sleepless-in-starbucks.tumblr.com/


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